Liu Peng (R) with Moroccan Youth and Sports Minister M. Belkhayet

(Beijing, December 17) On the evening of December 17, 2009, a visiting sports delegation from The Kingdom of Morocco led by Youth and Sports Minister Moncef Belkhayet attended a banquet in Beijing given by Liu Peng, Minister in charge of the General Administration of Sport and President of the Chinese Olympic Committee. The two sides exchanged views on how to strengthen and promote sports exchanges and cooperation between each other.

Liu extended a warm welcome to the Moroccan guests, saying for a long time the two countries had worked closely on such sports as table tennis, volleyball, swimming and gymnastics. Liu then expressed his thanks to the Moroccan friends for their active support to China's bid for and organization of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games.

Wang Jun, Vice-Minister in charge of the General Administration of Sport, had paid a visit to Morocco this February. During that period, Liu noted, the two sides had reached an agreement on China's donation of sports facilities and equipment to Morocco. The donation has now been approved by the Ministry of Commerce of China and all offered facilities and equipment will be transported to Morocco soon.

Belkhayet said that as one of the world sports powers China had set a good example for Morocco in sports development and the two sports circles had worked more closely during the past three years. He also revealed that Morocco plans to invest 400 million euros in building 1,000 community sports centers for people of all ages during 2010 and 2016 and, for this purpose, would buy the necessary facilities and equipment from Chinese companies and hope China would send experts to Morocco to help with the maintenance and management of these facilities.

Liu spoke highly of Morocco's programs of buliding sports centers within communities, especially their consideration for women and children. He assured his guests that China will spare no effort to promote further exchanges and cooperation with Morocco in the fields of human resources and sports.

At the end of the meeting the two sports leaders signed the Meeting Summary on behalf of the two countries.

Present at the meeting were Song Luzeng and Zuo Zhiyong, Director and Deputy Director of the GASC External Affairs Department, and Karim Aqary, Secretary-General of the Youth and Sports Ministry of Morocco.

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