French newspaper positively evaluates General Secretary's visit to France

Les Echos, France's leading economic newspaper, published an article with many positive reviews about General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong's visit to France.

With the title “Vietnam shines its economic dynamism in Paris” and a photo of General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong and French President Emmanuel Macron happily shaking hands, author Yves Bourdillon commented: “The visit to France by the number 1 leader of a Vietnam that is taking off has a clear economic purpose, which is to enhance the relationship between Paris and one of the most dynamic countries in Asia, which has recorded an average growth of 6% per year since the beginning of the 21st century and is forecast by international organizations to grow by 6.8% in 2018.

The newspaper also reported on the promising meeting between General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong and leading French businesses held on the morning of March 27 at the headquarters of the French employers' association Medef, in which the General Secretary highlighted areas of strength in which France and Vietnam can increase the value of their cooperation many times over, such as energy, agri-food, transportation, healthcare, and digital economy.

These are the opportunities affirmed by Ms. Marianne Laigneau, Director of the International Department of the French Electricity Group (EDF), when introducing BOT projects that have the potential to double the group's electricity production capacity in Vietnam within 6 years.

The Les Echos article also mentioned many other major economic contracts signed by Vietnamese and French companies on this occasion.

However, similar to the comments of many French economic experts, Les Échos newspaper also quoted French President Emmanuel Macron that "France must have a greater presence in Vietnam" because France is currently only the 16th investor in Vietnam and French exports only account for 1% of Vietnam's market of 93 million people.

To do this, Les Échos newspaper posted a very meaningful picture, which is the tweet that French President Emmanuel Macron posted on his Twitter microblog with the content: “The smile you send will come back to you. After a long history, France and Vietnam smile and move forward together towards a shared future”.

French President writes about smiling with Vietnam on Twitter.

The success and stories about the General Secretary’s visit to France were also reported by many other French newspapers. “Liberation”, a newspaper with a long tradition of the French left, besides reporting on major contracts, also mentioned future cooperation projects that the French President planned to carry out such as building a “French house” in Ho Chi Minh City, enhancing cooperation within the Francophone bloc or Mr. Macron praising Vietnam’s reforms to build a rule-of-law state.

Meanwhile, Les Parisiens, one of the largest-circulation daily newspapers in France and dedicated to residents of the Ile-de-France region surrounding the capital Paris, told touching stories about the General Secretary's visit to the city of Choisy-le-Roi in the suburbs of Paris to celebrate the 45th anniversary of the signing of the Paris Agreement./.