The policy of Pak-French co-operation in cultural, scientific, technical and academic fields

After two long and difficult years of reduced activities due to security reasons, the Pak-French cultural, scientific, technical and academic co-operation has resumed, more dynamic than ever.
The first step in a long and difficult process, was the reopening of the French school, an essential element of the French presence in Pakistan, where French speaking children, or simply children whose parents want them to follow a French curriculum, can receive a primary and secondary education.
Next was the reopening of the four cultural centres, in Islamabad, Lahore, Peshawar and Karachi.
The "Alliances franchises" have always played a leading role in our cultural co-operation with Pakistan. Concerts, exhibitions, and all kinds of artistic activities had, for years, contributed to the cultural life of Pakistan.
Therefore, their closure for a year and a half created sort of a deafening silence which was finally broken in January 2004.
The "Alliances franchises" have become again the window on France and French culture that they once were, but, perhaps more than ever, a space of freedom, a bridge between the Pakistani and French cultures, the space where European and South Asian intellectuals and artists can express themselves.
Concerts, exhibitions, conferences, those organised by the now reactivated French cultural network but also the ones organised by our European partners and friends, are again giving rhythm to the life of some of the major cities in Pakistan.
Of particular importance for us is the co-operation in academia and science, as the world is gradually moving towards a knowledge based economy.
2004 has been particularly significant in this regard, not least because of the vibrant co-operation with the Higher Education Commission.
Not only did we increase the number of Pakistani students studying in France, but we also created, in association with the Higher Education Commission a new program for faculty members of Pakistani universities.
Every year, twenty Pakistani faculty members will go to France to complete their PhD before resuming their teaching in Pakistani universities.
In total, the number of Pakistani students pursuing their studies in France has increased by more than 50% in 2004.
From a common training and therefore a common scientific and technological culture, new co-operations should emerge, based on true complementarities and shared problematics.
However, common scientific projects are not only a distant hope for the future but an existing reality.
Common research programmes have been evolved, for example, between the H.E.J. Research Institute in Chemistry (Karachi) and the French CNRS.
Similarly, new projects have been initiated in the field of genetics, and paleontology between the Institute of evolution sciences, Montpellier and the Geological Survey of Pakistan and the Pakistan Museum of Natural History.
These joint research activities are important because of their scientific content but also because they constitute an opportunity to develop common methodologies and structures that will allow the inclusion of young scientists in actual research very early in their career.
Social sciences have also experienced new developments in 2004. As a modest but hopefully effective response to the abyssmal ignorance on our respective societies on each other, a Pak-French exchange programme in social sciences has been initiated with the co-operation and full support of the Higher Education Commission and the French "Maison des Sciences de l'Homme".
Under this new scheme, Pakistani scholars will visit French research institutions and French scholars, Pakistani ones, in order to study jointly social realities of the two countries.
More traditional sectors of activities between our two countries have continued to develop and prosper. Archaeology in particular has always played an important role in the co-operation between France and Pakistan.
The interest shown by prestigious institutions such as the "Musee Guimet" in Paris, is evidence of the incredible richness of a archaeological patrimony showing Pakistan as a centre of civilisation of which every single Pakistani should be proud.
Our objective is of course to promote French expertise and French culture, to strengthen the French presence in Pakistan, to create the kind of vested interest that would link our countries on a sustainable basis.
However, none of these objectives would be achievable without the parallel promotion of the French language. French is the second foreign language taught in this country (after English), and a particular attention is paid to the continuous training of the teachers in order to upgrade their know how. Here again, the "Alliances franchises" play a dynamic and decisive role, both as teaching institutions without which nothing would be possible, but also as partners of Pakistani schools, colleges and universities.
Similarly, the ambitious programme of French distant learning, French Online, has reached this year unprecedented dimensions. Not only is it a perfect example of what can be done by a close co-operation between different national institutions (COMSATS and Allama Iqbal Open University on the one side, the "Alliance francaise" and the Embassy of France on the other one), but this Franco-Pakistani programme is gradually becoming regional, opening new and concrete windows of opportunity for regional co-operation.
It also takes into account the major evolutions which intervened since the beginning of the nineties in the field of education. E-learning plays a growing part in giving equal access to knowledge and has largely benefited, in particular, to the teaching of languages.
French Online is thus contributing to integrate the young generation to the globalisation both through the learning of an additional language as well as through the internet system itself.
One important feature should also be underlined at this stage. Although we take into account the growing demand for the French language, we no longer promote it as an objective in itself but we rather consider it was a major tool of our co-operation.
We are therefore moving towards more and more specialised courses the best example of this being the courses offered to the students going to France. After a few month at the "Alliance Francaise" followed by an intensive course in France they are able to pursue PhD studies in French.
In the same line, we intend to create special courses for businessmen and other professional categories.
Finally, one cannot ignore the important collaborations which continue to develop in the fields of health and education.
The co-operation between the Hospital Saint Antoine, Paris, and the Pakistan Institute of Medical Science which led to the creation of an intensive care unit in 2001 continues unabatted.
In the education sector, the co-operation between the Embassy of France, the NGO Craterre and the Aga Khan Foundation, should lead this year to the construction of a pilot school in Sindh on which other schools should later on be modelled, based on a technology which should reduce significantly the cost of every building.
French-Pak co-operation has achieved a lot over the past years. Yet much more needs to be done to raise the quality of our relationship and intensify it.
However, the actions described above are an indicator of the sort of relation we want to create between our two countries, based on culture, intelligence, knowledge, but also dynamic, independent and open to the rest of the world.
(The writer is Counsellor for Cultural, Scientific and Technical Co-operation French Embassy in Islamabad)