The Ambassador of France to Qatar, Franck Gellet.
DOHA: Expressing profound satisfaction over deep Qatar-France economic relations, the Ambassador of France to Qatar, Franck Gellet, has said that the economic relations between two countries are flourishing with passing time and in all circumstances.
“In fact they are skyrocketing,” he said in an exclusive interview with The Peninsula. The Ambassador said that there was a 30 percent increase in bilateral trade when 2017 is compared with 2016 and the volume of commercial exchange had touched QR10bn that year.
The French Ambassador said that around 200 French companies were operating or represented in Qatar and were contributing a lot to the infrastructure development of the country citing examples of the construction of Hamad Port, the metro and the tram, roads, industrial facilities. “One of the most talented French architect of our time, Jean Nouvel, is the author of the already iconic future Qatar National Museum. Qatar also trusts French companies,” he added.
To another question, the Ambassador said that French professionals were playing an important role in Qatar’s services sector as well in particular in gas and oil sector.
“Total (a French energy producer and provider) came here around 80 years ago.”
Pointing out areas of bilateral future cooperation, the Ambassador said that France and Qatar were moving forward with enhanced cooperation in the fields of smart economy, information technology among others.
To a question, the Ambassador said that Qatar had smartly organised its economy and trade in the post-blockade scenario from which France had also benefited and offered its best technology, food and other products and services to Qatar. “Qatar says it deserves the best and we (France) have the answer (in form of) proposing the best to Qatar.”
To another question, he said that French-Qatari cooperation for 2022 FIFA World Cup represented “common passion” between two nations on sports and football.
He said that both countries would have close cooperation for 2022 World Cup and France’s hosting of the Olympic Games in 2024. “We will like benefiting from Qatar’s experience.”
Regarding Qatar’s preparations for the mega sports event, the Ambassador said that 2022 FIFA World Cup would be “a big success and a great event” for which Qatar was doing impressive work.
“Being new in the country, I have not visited any stadium yet but I am impatient to pay a visit soon (to a Qatar 2022 stadium) and see the marvellous technologies the Supreme Committee is employing there like the cooling technology.”
Gellet said that he was very impressed by Aspetar (a specialised orthopaedic and sports medicine hospital). “It is equipped with state-of-the-art, modern technologies. I also plan to visit Aspire Academy soon.” He said that French athletes already come to be trained at the academy due to its quality of equipment.
Lauding the dynamic role of French community in Qatar, he said that French community, strong as 5,500, was highly-qualified, dedicated and active.
Regarding cultural ties between the two countries, he said that 2020 would be marked as ‘Qatar France Year of Culture’ in which a number of exhibitions and other memorable cultural events would be organised.
He said that France was working closely with Qatari cultural organisations and would now work with newly established institutions like Qatar National Museum and Qatar National Library.
He said that Qatar was an associate member of Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie. Gellet said that Institut Francais du Qatar and two high schools, Lycée Franco-Qatarien Voltaire and Lycée Francais Bonaparte, were doing great job in bringing French Qatari societies closer.
He praised S’hail (Katara International Hunting and Falcons Exhibition), which he visited recently, saying that such traditional events had a lot of potential to promote tourism in Qatar.
“The event was something fantastic to discover. Falconry is, among other Qatari living cultural treasures, something to what visitors could be initiated.”
On Qatar’s efforts to diversify its economy, he said that it was a very legitimate move and France was ready to be part of it and would happily consider associations and transfers of technology to Qatar to achieve its targets.
Talking on tourism, the Ambassador said that a large number of Qataris used to visit France every year for tourism and they would love exploring culture, heritage and landscape beauty of various parts of the country apart from visiting only Paris.
Extending his helping hand for Qatar’s fast-developing tourism sector, he said that Qatar too had a lot to offer to tourists and was fast becoming a tourist destinations and France could offer its expertise to Qatar in developing its tourism industry.
Regarding his future goals and ambitions as French Ambassador to Qatar, he said that he wanted to bring French-Qatari societies closer to each other through cultural exchanges and would also take steps to encourage Qatari students to select French universities and other higher educational institutes for their higher education as he termed them ‘the top institutes in the world’. Many students are already studying at the Qatar branch of the prestigious HEC business school, in Doha.
“We can (and will) also work together to address the issue of climate change and preserving the environment.”
The world, he said, was witnessing a number of challenges and many unexpected developments were taking place around the globe. “It is time of uncertainty. France and Qatar share same views on the virtues of multilateralism and will continue working together to resolve global challenges as Qatar is one of France’s great reliable partners.”
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