Benguerir (Morocco) (EFE).- The president of the Canary Islands, Fernando Clavijo, has predicted a “new horizon” in the archipelago’s relationship with Morocco in terms of innovation and development during his visit this Friday to the Mohamed VI Polytechnic University (UM6P ) by Benguerir, in which he highlighted that Africa “is the present and, above all, the future.”
In his speech at the ‘Africa Canary Challenge’ forum held at the UM6P, near Marrakech, Clavijo recalled that Morocco is a “strategic” country for Spain and the Canary Islands, and emphasized the islands’ commitment to “intelligent and Africa” and for the “strengthening of the Atlantic space”.
“Today we are here for a reason. To emphasize that we share, support and want to be part of a new vision of the African continent aligned with principles and values based on people’s potential and capacity for transformation,” said Clavijo.
This is the second time that the Canary Islands president travels to Morocco this month, after last the 8th he visited Rabat and met there with the Moroccan Foreign Minister, Nasser Bourita, a meeting in which he announced his attendance at this rapprochement forum. technology to Africa.
In Benguerir, Clavijo seeks to deepen the opportunities for scientific, technological and innovative collaboration between the Canary Islands, Morocco and all African countries, leading the largest R&D&I delegation in the archipelago to date to Africa with more than 40 doctors. university students, businessmen, entrepreneurs and representatives of emerging companies and knowledge centers.
A delegation that represents, according to the regional president, “the most important initiative in science, innovation and technology of an autonomous government of Spain on the continent.”
During his speech he emphasized “the vision of the Government of the Canary Islands on the potential of international cooperation in science, technology and innovation to create wealth and well-being and build a partnership” with the UM6P.
“Because Africa is the present,” he said, “but above all the future” and education, he added, is “a fundamental pillar” for development, using “the diplomacy of science, innovation and knowledge.”
Clavijo also referred to migration in his speech, recalling that the archipelago “is the main witness of a tragedy that is turning an ocean of opportunities into a cemetery of people who dreamed of another future when they decided to cross the Atlantic.”
He has announced that the Canary Islands Government has opened a line of work on migration with the UM6P ideas laboratory ‘Policy Center for a New South’ to analyze this phenomenon and add “the best academics and experts from this country and our region.” , on a multidisciplinary level.”
The Minister of Canarian Universities, Migdalia Machín, also attended the visit, who highlighted to the journalists that “it is about creating synergies between the different sectors of the Canary Islands, universities, research centers and the private sector” to “establish lines of collaboration with Africa that help us promote development in the Canary Islands through R&D&i.”
And the rector of the University of La Laguna, Francisco Javier García, who explained that “for the Canary Islands public universities, cooperation from the scientific field with universities on the African continent is a priority, for the future and the present.”
García has indicated that they are already working on energy issues or tropical diseases and that “it is evident that Africa is the future and the Canary Islands, due to its geostrategic, historical and cultural position, has a lot to contribute.”
Some of the fields of cooperation exposed at the forum are astronomy and astrophysics, marine renewable energies, knowledge in circular economy applied to island territories, advances in sustainable energy, and desalination and treatment of water resources.
On the Moroccan side, the director of the Department of Material Sciences at the UM6P, Jones Alami, pointed out that the Canary Islands and Morocco have similar challenges in fields such as agriculture and water, sectors that are, he said, “crucial for the development of our regions.”
For this reason, he has advocated pooling their knowledge to “find practical and innovative solutions” such as exploring more efficient practices in agriculture, managing water scarcity or renewable energy. EFE