Tell us about your time here so far
Georgia is a very beautiful country. Everybody recognizes it. French people like Georgia very much. As a testimony of this, a lot of French who came here, including businessmen, decided to establish themselves in Georgia and are very happy here. My predecessor ambassadors are always happy to come back and visit. The first reason why we like Georgia is the hospitality of the people, good food and good wine. Even those foreigners who just come for a few days want to stay here longer. In addition, Georgia is a beautiful country from both cultural and geographical points of view.
I also like the business environment. I personally like to develop concrete projects and in Georgia, there are a lot of things happening with France, because we have strong political relationships, demonstrated by a lot of visits and a constant and firm support for Georgia’s integrity. Our economic and cultural relationships are also tight, but didn’t reach the level we would like them to be at. We are attracting French companies to invest in Georgia, or to take part in different projects. In the cultural and education fields, we try to attract cooperation between peoples and universities.
What can you name as the strongest and weakest points of our government?
Georgia is lucky to have Mr. Kvirikashvili as Prime Minister: he’s a very wise, open man with a good strategy. My country wants to accompany Georgia in its development path along the four major points decided by the government. Priority No1 is education, which brings social progress. If people belonging to lower-income families still do not believe that through education their children will be able to get better jobs than themselves, then it means serious social problems in the long run. The second point is the governmental program, part of with is the reform of the economy, implementing it according to the DCFTA agenda, including fiscal, customs, pension and judicial reforms. France is ready to help.
The weak point is education, but the positive aspect is that Georgia is addressing it. In the field of higher education, internationalization is key to speeding up the ongoing reforms and to make Georgia a regional hub of student mobility. France is ready to assist in this process through a project called “Franco-Georgian University”. We already identified four French universities ready to work with Georgian partner universities to implement some of their degrees in the fields of tourism and agriculture, including vocational training.
Another weak point is infrastructure: there is not enough water treatment. Environment is a big problem too, in which France is supporting Georgia. People should be told to take care of their environment, be taught how to recycle plastics, etc. The newly elected mayor said he would deal with this, as well as the absence of parking places and the traffic congestion in the capital, which is becoming a nightmare. France has interesting expertise to share in the field of urban transport. In France, we have tramways on wheels, which is a new technology. Cities like Strasbourg, Bordeaux and even Paris are using this type of urban transport at the satisfaction of the population.
How has the visa-free regime influenced the number of tourists visiting France from Georgia?
It caused problems, but we anticipated that. When I arrived last year, I met with the Minister of Interior and told him that we like Georgians but we don’t like them committing crimes in France. We decided to strengthen our cooperation against organized crime. There is today a strong and trustful cooperation between the two countries in this field. That’s also why we supported a visa free regime for Georgian citizens. My opinion is that honest citizens who want to travel to our country are welcomed and should not be deprived of this possibility due to the misbehavior of a minority. Nevertheless, we noticed that there are Georgians who do not want to be tourists but want to work. To be able to work in a Schengen country, you need a visa. The visa free regime applies for short stays for tourism, cultural, family events and so on, but does not mean you can work during your stay. Regarding cases of returnees, the Border police of France said that the number of non-admissions has increased significantly since March 28, 2017. Greece and Germany are the worst cases in this respect. The Georgian government needs to better inform the population about the exact meaning of the visa free regime in order to avoid any misunderstanding. If the situation deteriorates, Georgia may face the suspension of the visa-free regime and control will be tighter. It means that because of the misbehavior of some people, honest people will also suffer. This is not what we want. We want to develop student mobility, business and tourism in both directions. That is the reason why we are working hard, with my Georgian colleague in Paris, to convince Air France to have direct flights to Georgia.
Has the number of Georgians learning French increased during your mission?
If you want to have an international career, it is not enough to know only Georgian, Russian and English. You have to add another language. You have the choice between German, French, Italian, and Spanish. French is the only language spoken on all five continents and if you know French you can easily understand all Latin languages. At the French Institute, there were 836 students in 2015, 822 in 2016, 845 in 2017. We also have three French schools. With the partnership of one of the high-tech companies, we also have online French tuition.
At Georgian schools, French and other European languages were badly affected by the 2010 reform on the teaching of foreign languages at schools. The number of French speaking students in Georgian schools plummeted from 30,000 in 2005-2009 to 12,000 in 2011 and 6,500 in 2013. Thanks to the Fonds Molière created by the Embassy with the support of the French Chamber of Commerce and the Swiss Embassy, we are currently reversing this downward trend. We reached 11,500 pupils in 2015 and 13,900 in 2016. The 2017 results are to be published very soon but we are confident that the increase will continue.
The French School of Caucasus is one of our greatest success stories, as it is fully recognized by both French and Georgian ministries of education as providing high quality education to Georgian, French and other foreign students. There is a constant increase in the number of students. This year there were 366 pupils (+12% compared to 2016, ie +44 pupils). In the Franco-Georgian university, which we plan to open next year, there will be two priority spheres: agriculture (cattle-breeding and wine-making) and tourism. We’ll also have exchange programs and vocational training.
The French gov’t also offers scholarships, doesn’t it?
Every year, there are between 15 to 20 scholarships for Georgian students willing to study in France at Masters level in every field, a program co-financed by the Georgian government and administrated in partnership with the Georgian International Education Center, which is a very important collaboration for us. In addition to that, we try to develop specific scholarships supported by the private sector.
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