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MANILA, Philippines – Just days after receiving Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak, President Benigno Aquino III hosted France’s prime minister in Malacañang.
Aquino welcomed French Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault who arrived in the Palace on Friday, October 19, at the start of his 3-day visit to the Philippines.
The President is holding a bilateral meeting with Ayrault and will host a dinner in his honor. A 130-member delegation composed of ministers, lawmakers and businessmen accompanied the Prime Minister. It is a historic visit, the first ever trip of a French Prime Minister to the Philippines.
Deputy Presidential Spokesperson Abigail Valte said the visit comes at a time of increased trade between France and the Philippines, rising to US-$1.143 billion in 2011.
In a Palace press briefing, Valte said, “French investments are up by 90% in 2011.”
Valte said French companies like Lafarge, Total, Alcatel have a strong presence in the Philippines while other French firms signified their intent to bid for several Public-Private Parternship projects of the Philippine government.
Two deals
Aquino and Ayrault witnessed the signing of two agreements between their countries.
The first is the Declaration of Intent for a study on energy production from biomass.
“The French government will give a grant amounting to US-$482,204 to fund the feasibility study on rice as fuel to generate electricity using organic ranking cycle or ORC technology,” said Valte.
A pilot project is being developed to determine if similar power stations can be installed in rural areas in the Philippines and adopted in rice-producting countries in Southeast Asia.
The second deal is the Philippines-France Memorandum of Agreement on the Philippine Exhibition on the Musée du Quai Branly, France’s premier museum for indigenous art and culture. The museum is located in Paris, France.
The Philippines was chosen as the featured exhibiting country at the museum for the exhibition to be held from April 9 to July 21, 2013.
Valte said of the deal, “It confirms the condition of the loan security conservation and return to the Philippines and immunity from seizure of the objects and artworks loaned for the exhibition and it will ensure mutual assistance in administrative matters of the following participating institutions: the National Museum of the Philippines and the Museum of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas.”
The event is hailed as a landmark exhibition that will showcase artworks on pre-colonial Philippines from national collections of the Philippines, US and Europe, and private collections.
The Philippines and Singapore are the first Asian countries to be visited by Ayrault.
Ayrault arrived in Manila from Singapore, which he visited at the invitation of Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong. – Rappler.com
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