Coca-Cola Co. has a strong presence in Morocco and the company played host in Atlanta at the annual U.S.-Morocco Trade and Investment Forum.

Diplomats, business leaders and government officials made pitches on why the North African country is a great entry point for American companies looking to do business on a continent with a rising middle class and 1 billion consumers.

From GlobalAtlanta. Story by Trevor Williams.

Coca-Cola Co. has a strong brand and business presence in the North African country of 33 million people, including a bottling plant in Marrakech that can churn out 26,000 glass bottles per hour of the locally developed Hawai orange drink.

Morocco is the No. 2 African country investing in Africa. Its insurance companies and banks like Attijariwafa Bank, BCP and BMCE are working throughout the continent, and not just in French-speaking North and West Africa.

Casablanca Finance City was set up in 2010 to provide a focal point for service providers and corporate headquarters of firms looking for a regional base. Casablanca, better known in America from the classic movie set in the city, is emerging as a finance hub and boasts the third largest stock market on the continent. Free zones connected to ports are luring automotive and aerospace manufacturers.

These capabilities allow U.S. investors in Morocco to deal with a handful of advisers for African expansion rather than trying to break into multiple markets on their own, Moroccan Ambassador Rachad Bouhlal told Global Atlanta in an interview.

Developing countries like Morocco are looking to use technology to “leapfrog” the traditional growth curve, and the mobile banking sector throughout Africa is a prime example of that trend, said Mahmoune Bouhdoud, minster of small and medium businesses in the Ministry of Trade, Investment and Digital Economy.

“You don’t have to wait until there is a Moroccan Goldman Sachs to develop mobile banking,” he said.

Morocco has a free trade agreement with the U.S. enacted in 2006, which has led to increased bilateral trade now totaling $3 billion (with a rare U.S. trade surplus of more than $1.1 billion). More than 100 U.S. firms including the likes of Boeing Co. and General Dynamics Corp. have a presence there, according to the ambassador.

Georgia, the No. 7 exporter to Morocco with $71 million in sales in 2014, is among the U.S. states being targeted for increased interaction.

Morocco, a mostly Muslim monarchy, responded to the Arab Spring in 2011 by enacting swift constitutional reforms aimed at ensuring the stability prized by investors. While it has been years since the last major terrorist attack on a cafe in 2011, the country has been on high alert in light of recent attacks on a beach resort and museum in Tunisia.

Bouhlal said Morocco is working to combat extremism, with its religious institutions playing a critical role in training imams from Africa and Europe on how to prevent radicalization of youth.

Read more at GlobalAtlanta.