Communication - Press
IFCCI's Honorary Patron And The French Ambassador Speaks At The Global Investor's Summit In Chennai
France is not looking at India as a market but as a partner, France’s Ambassador to India Alexandre Ziegler told TOI on the sidelines of the Global Investors Meeting in Chennai on Wednesday.
“I am honoured to be here as [the representative of] a partner country rather than a country seeing India as a market. French companies are here to invest in long term. With Make In India, we are ready to innovate in India. Across India, there are around 600 French companies and, of them, 170 are situated in Tamil Nadu. The tendency of French companies to make India their home is continuing,” the ambassador said.
France would sign two MoUs at the GIM and was ready for agreements, in the future, on offshore wind power projects. “In this global investors meeting, we are signing two MoUs. The first one is for a food park and it will be commissioned in a year or so. Another one is by car manufacturer Peugeot, which is setting up a factory near Chennai. French investments in Tamil Nadu have been increasing,”said Ziegler.
Across Tamil Nadu, French companies employ not less than 50,000 people, said Ziegler.“French companies are not only in automobile sector; we are present in food park, hospitality, information technology, banking, health care, tyre manufacturing with companies like Michelin having presence in the state,” he added.
Apart from Tamil Nadu, French companies had a presence in Maharashtra, Gujarat, Karnataka and were looking for investment opportunities in all states.“The advantages our companies have in Tamil Nadu are the connectivity and talent pool, education level is very high, accessibility to ports for exports is there, industrial ecosystem and supply chain exist,” he said.
On Tamil Nadu-France travel, the ambassador said there was a direct flight between Chennai and Paris and this would increase the tourist flow. The number of visas being issued by the French consulate in Chennai had seen a steady increase over the years and this trend would continue, said Ziegler.
To promote tourism infrastructure in Tamil Nadu, French hotel chain Accor Hotels was strengthening its presence in the state; in Chennai and Coimbatore alone it had 8 branches. “In Puducherry too we are looking at all possibilities,” he added France was also interested in investing in wind power. “Recently we signed an agreement with Tamil Nadu on setting up a wind power park and we are ready to support offshore wind power projects in the state,” said the ambassador.
Source: Times of India
