French offerts for Pakistan Interview donnée par l’Ambassadeur de France au Pakistan, M. Régis de Belenet, au mensuel Defence Journal, Karachi Governor State Bank of Pakistan stresses the need to have closer technological cooperation between Pakistan and France . What are your comments and prospects ? RdB : The Governor State Bank of Pakistan is right, of course : there is a need to have closer technological cooperation and a lot of possibilities do exist to do so. 1) My country is the sixth economic power in the world ; the fifth goods export country ; the fourth services exporting country ; the second for hourly productivity ; the first as a tourist destination with more than 70 million tourists a year that is to say more than the French population ( 62 million inhabitants). France is also one of the most advanced countries in terms of hi-tech, manufacturing, alone or in joint venture, some of the most famous contemporary internationally acclaimed achievements, such as world-standard cars manufactured by Renault and Peugeot/ Citroen all over the world, bullet trains (TGV) by ALSTOM, mobile telephone systems by ALCATEL, radars by THALES, satellites by ASTRIUM and EADS, missiles by ARIANE, aeroplanes by AIRBUS, not to speak of electronics with SAGEM or power production with companies like TOTAL and AREVA etc... 2) With such a solid and diversified expertise, France is capable of laying the foundation with Pakistan of a stronger and closer cooperation in acquisition of many modern technologies. This, in fact, is going to materialize, in the near future with the setting up of a new University of Technology in Karachi. I would like to insist a little bit on this project which I consider as a flag one. A completely new University of Engineering, Science and Technology ( UESTP) will be set up in Karachi, on the pattern of the French University of Technology, from Troyes (France). This takes place under a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) signed between the Higher Education Commission of Pakistan ( HEC ) and the French Government in April this year which, among many, commits the French Government in the creation of a consortium of top engineering French Universities to support the new UESTP. This UESTP is likely to open its gates in October 2007, with a limited number of students and professors at the beginning, but the target is to take the number of students in Bsc, Msc and PhD levels to 5.000 within ten years. This will be the opportunity to welcome in Pakistan some six French professors in 2007, as they would be about 25 in 2017 holding the key faculty and administrative positions of the UESTP. The UESTP curricula will include the disciplines of Mechanical Engineering and Industrial System, Computer Sciences and IT, Textile Engineering, Food Technology Engineering, Electrical Engineering and Alternative Energy, Marine Sciences. The medium of instruction will be the English language and French language classes will be part of the syllabus, in order to give to the students the opportunity to complete their six months internship in France. Even if after ten years, the UESTP would be at the level to be handed over to Pakistan, the objective is to carry on the Pakistan-France cooperation in the fields of higher education, technological and industrial development. Indeed, Pakistan and France are strongly focusing on the involvement of the French and Pakistani industries from the very beginning of the project in order them to contribute to the curriculum in participating to the steering committee, being linked to the Technology Park and Business Incubator Center which will be established adjacent to the educational sector, providing internships and giving lectures to the students. I can also tell you, that our Pakistani-French Business Club ( Pakistani-French Business Alliance / PFBA) has already set up a committee to be involved as needed. 4. How do you evaluate the socio-economic bilateral relationships between the two countries .What are your recommendations to boast socio-economic relationships and volumes of trade in the future ? RdB : Basically, I think our two countries have good economic reasons to pay more attention to the one an other, but, probably due to perceptions problems, we still have a lot to do to reach better results. Our relations have been too much restricted to trade and not opened enough to investment : The two-ways trade, according to French statistics, have reached last year around one billion US$, a figure which is not so bad and which is the result of a important increase in the last two years. We have also a lot of French engineering teams present in Pakistan in Kamra for examplefor the maintenance of the Air Force Mirage( DASSAULT, SAGEM, SNECMA)or in Karachi for the construction of submarines However, French investments, considered as financial flows able to modify the socio-economic fabric of your country, are rather low. The stock is mainly represented by eight companies of ours, seven major Groups (TOTAL in joint venture with PARCO,ALCATEL, ALSTOM and AREVA, SANOFI-AVENTIS, RHODIA, CONTINENTAL BISCUITS LU) and one SME (ARCHIFILES, a company specialised in digitalisation of land registration). We have to work to build up a new image and, to do that, to interconnect better. Different tools exist, like the Pakistani- French Business Association ( PFBA ) or in Paris a Pakistan Committee launched last spring within the French Business Confederation ( MEDEF). It is also the role of the different Chambers of Trade and Industry, both in Pakistan and in France to organise appropriate events with the assistance of course of the economic mission of the Embassy as far as necessary. The big issue that the world is facing today is terrorism, what is the vision of the French government on the American policy on the global war on terrorism and its role to democratise the world. How do you see Pakistan’s role against the war on terrorism ? We have an excellent operational cooperation with the US in the fight against terrorism. But we have doubts on this formula “global war on terrorism”, or more generally the warlike terminology : the fight against terrorism is not primarily a problem of military means. Today we have to face a global phenomenon which involves a tiny minority but not a marginal minority. It is a lasting phenomenon which constitutes a strategic threat. None of our countries is spared. Pakistan is not, neither is France. Yes, we are convinced it is possible to win this fight ; but that requires a lot of efforts : technical ones, like the strengthening of international cooperation or a better control of movements of persons ; but also political ones. Let me insist a little bit on this point : counter-terrorism must, first and foremost, combine police, judicial and intelligence resources, with due respect for human rights and civil liberties and under constant control by civilian judges. we have also to reject any conflation of Islam to terrorism : the fight against terrorism is focused on the groups which try to hijack Islam’s humanist tradition and pervert the religion for the goals and causes that the criminals claim to be serving. we have to counter the rhetoric of hatred and intolerance. fighting global terrorism, also requires a political approach. To reduce and ideally to resolve regional crisis ; to strengthen solidarity and development ; to consolidate weak states ; to give the priority to multilateralism : each of those objectives is important in itself . But those objectives are also important in the fight against terrorism because terrorism uses opportunistically regional conflicts, poverty, existence of weak states or absence of sense of otherness, for recruitment and/or as a motor of mobilisation. As to the role of Pakistan, it is crucial and Pakistan has had major
Posted on: Sat, 30 Nov 2013 12:17:23 +0000
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