Ansamed Italy
Decided in latest meeting of high officials in Brussels
(ANSAmed) – BRUSSELS, FEBRUARY 13 – The Union for the Mediterranean will have a new secretary general as of March 1: Fathallah Sijilmassi. Sijilmassi is currently director of the Moroccan investment promotion agency, following in the footsteps of another Moroccan in January, Youssef Amrani, now Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation. The decision to appoint Sijilmassi, the only candidate, was taken in the most recent Union for the Mediterranean meeting of high officials in Brussels. ”He is a competent person,” diplomatic sources said, ”with experience in business and the banking sector as well as diplomatic experience, the right profile to give an impulse to the Union for the Mediterranean projects. He will officially take office on the first of march and will be present at the next meeting of high officials in Barcelona on April 26. The details of the secretary’s work programme which was recently approved will be discussed in this meeting.” The high officials of the 43 countries have also given green light to the secretariat’s proposal to ‘adopt’ the project for the development of the central sector of the Maghreb motorway between Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia, trying to get international funding. The new secretary of the Union for the Mediterranean, Sijilmassi, was born on August 21 1966 in Rabat and has a degree in economic science and political science, graduating in Grenoble. He is married, has two children and speaks Arabic, French, English and Italian. He started his career in 1989 at the Commercial Bank of Morocco, of which he became representative in Milan in 1991 and 1992.
His career in public institutions started in 1992, first in the Foreign Trade Ministry and later the Foreign Affairs Ministry.
He has represented Morocco in the Barcelona process and was Morocco’s ambassador to France from 2004 to 2009. Since 2009 he chairs the Moroccan investment promotion agency. Sijilmassi has received the Moroccan legion of honour and the official order of the French Republic. (ANSAmed)
