Organised under the aegis of the Ministry of Industry, Trade and New Technologies and the Ministry of Higher Education, Scientific Research and Executive Training, the 12th edition of the Arts and Trades forum allows engineering students to meet major industrialists, learn about new developments in the job market, submit CVs and land job interviews.

In an opening speech, the Wali of the Meknès-Tafilalet region, Governor of the Meknès prefecture, Mohamed Faouzi, welcomed the choice of the theme of this edition and the efforts deployed by the organisers, highlighting the important role that knowledge plays in the development of the economy, the capacity for innovation and in the development of human capital.

For his part, the President of Moulay Ismail University, Ahmed El Brihi, estimated that "the time devoted to the organisation of this forum is not in vain", but constitutes a formidable learning and training experience. "This field training remains fundamentally complementary to the education they receive within their university," he said. Mr. El Brihi added that the choice of theme meets the requirements of globalisation, which has reduced the world to a small global village where competition is fierce, highlighting the role of universities in the knowledge economy, particularly in Morocco.

The regional president of the General Confederation of Moroccan Enterprises, Larbi Laraichi, stressed, for his part, that the choice of theme falls within the framework of bringing the world of knowledge and that of business closer together, which "were taking parallel paths, because there were always prejudices that prevented the meeting between those who hold money and those who hold knowledge".

Mr. Laraichi estimated that with the insertion of the Moroccan economy into the global knowledge economy, cooperation between higher education and business becomes a necessity to survive and face the fierce competition coming from outside, which will be played out on the ground of research and innovation.

For his part, the Director of the National Higher School of Arts and Trades, Mohamed Bouida, indicated that enormous pressures are being exerted on Moroccan companies to become more creative, dynamic and competitive, stressing that the government strategy Maroc Innovation falls within this perspective, namely "to pursue and strengthen their cooperation with research institutions in order to transform this available research capacity into technology and commercialised products".

-* The choice of theme meets the requirements of globalisation, which has reduced the world to a small global village where competition is fierce.

-* Enormous pressures are being exerted on Moroccan companies to become more creative, dynamic and competitive.