President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. lauded the French government’s initiative to open a direct flight from Manila to Paris and its plan to strengthen the scholarship programs for Filipino students.
Marcos extended his gratitude to outgoing French Ambassador to the Philippines HE Michèle Boccoz who informed the chief executive of the plans to open a direct flight and strengthen scholarship programs.
The President lauded Boccoz for all the good that she has done to strengthen the relationship between the two countries.
“It is something new for our two countries to have these relationships now. I’m sure that there’s something that will grow rapidly within the next two years. Those are the things that I think we can merge. I think we can make a good start,” President Marcos told Boccoz in in her farewell call at the Malacañan Palace on Tuesday, over a year after she presented her credentials to the chief executive on May 30, 2022.
Boccoz, who will conclude her diplomatic mission in the Philippines this month, added that the French government appreciated the loving and hospitable Filipino people. She served as the Ambassador of France to the Philippines since February 10, 2021.
Boccoz informed President Marcos of the plans to open a direct flight from Manila and scholarship programs for Filipino students will be strengthened.
She said the French government is working closely on promoting their student exchange or scholarship programs to encourage more Filipino students to study in Paris as she believes that the Philippines has many gifted and dynamic students.
“It is also something that we’re really promoting, to have more students in all areas in Science, in Engineering and Technologies and all of the areas because there’s so many gifted—very, very gifted people. And the young generation is so dynamic in this country and I’m sure there’ll be many, many opportunities to increase the relationship in all those areas, and to go to the next step of our relation,” Boccoz said.
“There are many things going on and one of them, I understand, we will have in the near future a direct flight from Manila to Paris and that’s also in progress,” Boccoz told the President.
Marcos expressed confidence that the new French ambassador will continue what Boccoz has started in the Philippines.
During the farewell call, the chief executive told Boccoz that she is warmly welcome to visit the Philippines again as he wished that she had good memories in the country.
The Philippines and France formally established diplomatic relations on June 26, 1947 with the signing of the Treaty of Friendship between the two countries by then Vice President Elpidio Quirino and then French Foreign Minister George Bidault.
The two countries commemorated the 75th anniversary of the establishment of bilateral relations last year.
In terms of trade and investment, France is the 18th trading partner of the Philippines from 2021 to 2022 after its total trade went from $1.5 billion to $1.8 billion as it remains the country’s 5th biggest agri-export partner in 2021 and the 4th of the agri-import sources among EU member states.
France is also one of the Philippines’ biggest sources of Official Development Assistance (ODA), particularly in the fields of telecommunications, energy, transportation, environment, health, and disaster management. PND
