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French seek new traders image

A K Diwanji in Bombay

France is better known for its beautiful women and buildings, tasty wines and cuisine, grand art and culture, a country with a grand history and a capital, Paris, that is consistently rated as among the world's most beautiful. Business and commerce are sentiments not normally associated with France or the French.

But on Saturday, French President Jacques Chirac showed the other side of France, wooing Indian businessmen with typical Gallic passion. He displayed French industry: high speed trains (faster than the Bullet trains), Airbus (which he hoped India would buy), and satellite technology (common to both countries); French management and services; and France's knowhow in setting up infrastructure and urban facilities, considered among the best in the world.

Speaking at a seminar organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry in Bombay, he promised an Exhibition of France in India next year, along the lines of the fair held in China last year. Chirac, who is on a three-day state visit to India, said that he had chosen to start his tour from Bombay since it was the commercial capital of the country. The French president will be the guest of honour at the Republic Day parade in New Delhi on January 26.

The president insisted that France was keen to become a major economic partner. Chirac reeled out impressive figures on how France had the world's fourth largest economy, was the fourth largest importer and exporter, and ranked second in providing services and agricultural products, the last considered important for India.

In true Gallic fashion, he embarked upon the themes of the European Union and the new currency -- euro -- that will replace the currencies of the European nations from January 1, 1999. "Tomorrow, the European Union will be the world's largest market with 500 million, and the euro will become the other great world currency," he said. "At the heart of this new Europe is France, which seeks more ambitious, broader economic relations with India." Trade with France would lead to trade with Europe, he added.

He pointed out that France is already the 7th largest investor in India, with some of the biggest names in French industry -- Saint Gobain, GEC-Alsthom, Rhone-Poulenc, Alcatel, etc -- are in India. This, he insisted, demonstrated the interest of France in India. But, he insisted, that India and France must go further, into other areas such as banking, insurance, space, transport.

Earlier, Maharashtra Chief Minister Manohar Joshi fervently appealed to Chirac and the French industry to invest in his state, pointing out that it was India's top state for industry and investment. He began his speech by addressing the French president as "Mr Chirag", and when the Indians in the audience tittered at his mispronunciation, he turned round and said, "I call him Chirag (which means lamp in Marathi) because he will bring light to the state of Maharashtra." Joshi specifically asked for investment in the food processing business.

If Chirac was fulsome in his praise, French minister of economy, finances and industry, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, categorically warned India that future investments depend upon continuing the process of reforms.

He praised India for its democracy, and said that this was one of the reasons why India did not go the way of the East Asia. "Democracy ensured transparency, but in the East Asian countries, bad financial deals were not penalised, leading to the crisis," he said.

A large business delegation accompanied the French president, amny of whom went up on stage to make a brief two-minute presentation of their companies. Two business agreements were signed; the first between Tata Electric Companies and Total for setting up a liquefied natural gas storage facility in Bombay. The project would also explore avenues for marketting LNG.

The second deal was between CCF, Infrastructure Leasing and Financial Services, and the Tamil Nadu Industrial Development Corporation on the management of toll services. The second deal will also carry out a feasibility study on building roads with private capital.

Speaking to Rediff On The Net, Michel Sabatier, former India head of CCF (Credit Commercial de France), said that Indo-French relations were a victim of the images held by citizens of each other's country.

"In India, you view France as a country of wine, women and song; of romance and love, never as a place for doing business," said Sabatier, who spent 10 years in India from 1985 and speaks a smattering of Hindi. "An Indian tycoon will visit Paris, climb up the Eiffel Tower, but ask him to walk 100 metres from the Eiffel Tower towards the CCF office and he'll turn up his nose."

To make matters worse, the French too hold a unidimensional image of India. "We in France see India as the land of spiritual values, of Mahatma Gandhi," added Sabatier. "In fact, talking commerce and business deals somehow almost demeans the mystique of India, and perhaps for this reason French people never looked at India as a business proposition."

Things, however, are a changing. "It is about time, isn't it," he said. "After all, we both have expertise in areas that can can be of mutual benefit, and I am glad that this visit will show the business side of our respective countries."

Businessmen, on both sides, will toast to that.