A preparatory meeting for the fifth Arab Maghreb Union (AMU) conference on economic co-operation opened on Tuesday (January 8th) in Nouakchott, Al Akhbar reported.

Economists and financial experts from the Maghreb countries, as well as representative of the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank and the Islamic Development Bank, were present.

"The meeting is an opportunity to discuss the various challenges the union faces on its path to economic and financial integration and to review ways to promote inter-Maghreb and foreign investments," Mauritanian Central Bank Governor Sid Ahmed Ould Raiss told participants.