On the afternoon of September 5, 2005, Chairman Wu Bangguo of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress (NPC), who was on his official good-will visit to Morocco, met with Moroccan Prime Minister Driss Jettou at the latter's residence.

First, Wu conveyed the cordial greetings from Premier Wen Jiabao to Prime Minister Jettou. Jettou expressed his thanks and asked Chairman Wu to send his good wishes to Premier Wen Jiabao.

Wu said that since the establishment of diplomatic ties between China and Morocco 47 years ago, the bilateral cooperative relations in various fields have been developing smoothly and scored remarkable achievements, with which China is satisfied. It is worth noting in particular that recent years have witnessed sound development of bilateral economic and trade relations in general, rapid growth of trade volume, steady expansion of cooperation areas and an increase of cooperation modes, which have brought tangible benefits to the two countries and their people.

He emphasized that both economies are highly complementary to each other and their economic and trade cooperation enjoys huge potentials and broad prospects. China would like to work with Morocco to improve the trade mix, strengthen business and industrial cooperation, conduct investment cooperation in the areas of resources, fishery, communications and textile and expand tourist cooperation in the spirit of mutual benefits in a bid to elevate the bilateral economic and trade relations to a new level.

Jettou agreed with Wu's comments on the bilateral relations and proposals on enhancing bilateral economic and trade cooperation. He said that both sides have always maintained sound bilateral relations, share the same or similar views on major international and regional issues and show mutual understanding and support on the concerns of each other. To strengthen the bilateral economic and trade cooperation is the common aspiration of both sides. Morocco also hopes to reinforce mutually beneficial cooperation with China in the areas of investment and tourism and welcomes the Chinese enterprises to invest and run businesses in Morocco and jointly explore the African and European markets. The Moroccan government will create conditions and provide facilitations for the cooperation between businesses of both countries.

Vice Chairman and Secretary General Sheng Huaren of the NPC Standing Committee and other officials attended the meeting.

Following the meeting, Wu and Jettou jointly attended the signing ceremony of the agreement on the economic and technological cooperation between the two governments, the exchange of notes on textile management and the training of technicians and other documents.