The "Bastille Day" is the occasion to celebrate the anniversary of the French Revolution all around the world. 215 years later, the French people still recognise the high values of this symbol and its corresponding slogan "Liberty, Fraternity, Equality".
This slogan is as strongly applied in the context of free economic development as in any other field.
In modern times, France and Pakistan have consistently built up a vigorous economic and financial co-operation within a framework of mutual respect and common profitable interests.
Actually, France, since the late 60's, has offered a wide scope of grants and soft loans resulting in the presence of many French private companies working in Pakistan today and the expansion of dozens of infrastructures and transfer of technologies all over the four provinces of Pakistan.
More than 700 millions Euros (ie 840 millions US Dollars) worth of civil contracts have been made under these conditions.
France is very proud of this achievement which covers various fields, in particular hospital equipment, telecommunications and rural telephone networks (in Sindh and Punjab), thermal and nuclear power plants (such as Chasma) and electrical sub-station (Guddu), civil aviation and airport terminals (the Karachi airport and new Lahore airport terminal have been built by French companies), water dams and potable water wells, and chemical equipment for university purposes.
On the financial side, France has been actively participating during these last three years. It has played a major role in the approval of the IMF, as regards to the Poverty Reduction and Growth Facility (1, 3 billion USD) as well as facilitating a comprehensive restructuring of bilateral debts, amounting to 12, 5 billion USD, in its capacity of being President of the Paris Club and one of the three major creditors of Pakistan.
France's own contribution in this regard amounted to 1, 7 billion. Besides that, as an EU member, France has also been actively contributing for the financial assistance granted by the European Commission.
Owing to these long term relations, today the Pakistani and French businessmen have a good know how of the market both in exports and imports.
In particular, Pakistani manufacturers have gained access to the top French market. Presently, with 400 Million _ of Pakistani exports, the trade balance is by far favourable to Pakistan. On the other hand, French exports to your country have reduced to 200 million _ 2003.
In the present scenario, the French Government considers the return of the economic stability to the country, of the utmost importance.
This stability is a contributing factor which favours France's desire to participate in the development of Pakistan.
Actually, the Government of Pakistan has made numerous achievements in various domains and France, now, is more than willing to further co-operate with your country.
There are many other reasons for doing so but lets mention the most important ones here, such as the exceptional GDP growth of the last two years - largely over 5%, most probably over 6% for 2003 / 2004 -, the reduced budget deficit and the successful issue of the 500 million USD in last February and last but not the least, the upgrading of Pakistan within the OECD rankings.
All these achievements are very positive signs and highly sought after by any foreign company, willing to assist in the development.
The new approach of France, regarding its co-operation with Pakistan, will revolve around two issues.
Firstly, in finding new French world-class groups, who are able to participate in the expansion of the new infrastructures plan of the GOP and secondly, in-looking for new niches where potential famous French industrialists might enter into joint ventures with their Pakistani counterparts (for instance, in car industry, food processing and textile technologies).
For that purpose, the French Embassy is working out a fact-finding mission of the French Confederation of Industries "MEDEF" which will visit Pakistan around the end of the year, in order to assess the situation and to explore investment opportunities and potential markets.
As long as the macro stability keeps improving, France would like to consider new prospects of entering into financial co-operation with Pakistan.
In this regard, we hope that the French credit-agency, COFACE, comes back to Pakistan very soon so that its entry into the market paves the way for a future come-back of French development assistance.
The friendship between FRANCE and PAKISTAN is very strong as it is time tested and its foundations rest on mutual understanding.
"HOW TO DO MORE BUSINESS WITH FRANCE THROUGH ACTIVE PUBLIC AND PRIVATE SUPPORTS IN PAKISTAN"
In order to develop their trade ties with France, the Pakistani importing companies can ask for the assistance of the Economic Department of the French Embassy, located both in Islamabad and Karachi.
The ED provides strong support by identifying the business opportunities and potential investments like joint-ventures.
The two teams, comprising of experienced French and Pakistani public servants are headed by Mr. Jean-Philippe Quercy, Economic and Commercial Counsellor and Mrs. Brigitte Bouvet, Commercial Counsellor, Islamabad, both newly arrived in Pakistan, after numerous years of service abroad.
The ED in Karachi is managed by M. Hidayat Hussain, Attache Commercial. These two teams are highly capable of providing information and attending to various queries which the Pakistani company heads might have, regarding business prospects in France.
As far as the private sector is concerned, the "Pakistan France Business Alliance", which is based in Karachi since 1990, with a Northern Chapter in Lahore since 2002, is a very dynamic private body, which organises different events in order to promote trade between the two countries; one of its main purpose is to promote Pakistani exports to France.
The Association of the "French Advisers for Foreign Trade", comprising of French heads of companies based in Pakistan, offer free advice to French traders who are willing to work in this country.
"TRADE BETWEEN PAKISTAN AND FRANCE IN 2002/2003" The European Union is the most important trade partner of Pakistan. In 2002/2003, European Union has absorbed 2 billion USD of exports from Pakistan (30% of the total).
Pakistan/EU trade balance shows a surplus in 2002/2003 of 1 billion USD in favour of Pakistan.
The trade balance between France and Pakistan experienced a surplus of 196 M_ in 2003 (an increase of 106%), in favour of Pakistan and has known this situation for the last 9 years.
France imported goods worth 394M_ in 2003 from Pakistan, representing an increase of 3.8% as compared to the previous year.
The textile/garments/leather industry represented 73%of the French imports in 2003. France is the fourth European market for Pakistani exports after the United Kingdom, Germany and Italy.
The custom duty concessions granted by the European Union as well as the quality of the goods produced by the Pakistani manufacturers, who should be praised for their performance, contributed to the strong growth of the Pakistani exports to France and EU during the last few years.
As far as French exports are concerned, they consisted of 70% of capital goods in the early 90's (such as machinery and mechanical equipment, electrical equipment, transport). They have experienced a strong diversification since then and in 2003, these goods amounted to only 34%.
The intermediate goods (mainly chemicals, metallic products, electrical and electronic components) and the agriculture representing respectively 33% and 10% of the French exports to Pakistan.
Automotive parts (-46.4%), electronic and electric components (-44.4%) and metallic products (-39%) are the main items to have experienced a significant decline.
Overall, the French exports have reached 198 M_ in 2003, a decrease of 31.2% as compared to 2002. France is the 9th supplier of goods to Pakistan. Its exports decreased during the last year, in particular, due to the high rate of the Euro against the Pakistani Rupee, the low level of private investments and of public expenditures.
"FRENCH CONTEMPORARY DEVELOPMENT AID TO PAKISTAN" The government of France reactivated in the year 2002, the Islamabad Waste Water Treatment Plant Project.
This plant is to be built in Islamabad under the protocol signed between Pakistan and France in 1996, according to which, France would provide 20 M _ to Pakistan for its completion.
The project comprises of the rehabilitation of existing water treatment plants and the construction of a new plant and will have a positive impact on the environment. Better and efficient services will be provided to the residents of Islamabad.
The feasibility study of this project was carried out by a French consultancy firm, BCEOM, which is based in the south of France. The project will be awarded within the coming weeks to a French company.
(The writer is Economic & Commercial Counsellor French Embassy in Islamabad)