French Community in Ghana celebrates "French National Day"

The French Community in Ghana celebrated its National day on Tuesday 14th of July.

A reception was organized by the Ambassador of France, H.E Frederic Clavier at his residence to honor the French-Ghanaian friendship.

The event was attended by a government delegation, led by the Minister of Defence, Honorable Benjamin Kunbuor , the French community and all Ghanaian friends of France.

July 14th marks the French National Day. This day commemorates the liberation of “La Bastille” in 1789. The castle “La Bastille” was a prison where opponents to the monarchy were jailed without any fair judgment. The liberation of the prisoners and the destruction of “La Bastille” are known as “the French Revolution”.

Since 1880, the 14th of July celebrates the national liberty against tyranny and the unity of the country which are embedded in the French motto “Liberty, Equality, Fraternity”.

Festivities and firework displays take place in French cities. Each year, a military parade is organized on the largest Paris avenue called “Les Champs Elysees” in front of the French President, his government and foreign ambassadors to France. It brings together hundreds of thousands of people coming to celebrate the French Republic.

In Ghana, 14th of July is an opportunity to celebrate the relationship between the two countries.

In his speech, the Ambassador of France to Ghana, H.E Frédéric Clavier recalled that “the remarkable political dialogue, the dynamism of the economic and financial interests, and the level of cooperation help to strengthen the partnership between the two countries”.

Since 2013, there is a political mechanism made of annual consultations preceded by a meeting between the 2 ministers for foreign affairs. France and Ghana have exchanged their knowledge on all the main actual international issues, from Africa to Middle East, from terrorism to United Nations agenda.

France and Ghana share mutual values on society and have also in common the idea that only stability and peace are in capacity to guarantee the basis necessary to the development of our nations and peoples.

After the success of the political dialogue between France and Ghana in October 2014, the main political issue, for these coming months, will be the preparation of the next session which will be held in France, according to H.E Frédéric Clavier.

The launching of the French Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Ghana, in 2014, in the presence of the Vice President of the Republic of Ghana, HE Kwesi Amissah Arthur, illustrates the confidence of France in the process of economic development and French investments in Ghana.

In 2015, France in Ghana represents 60 companies, more than 475 million dollars of investment and nearly 1.2 billion dollars for bilateral trade. The Ambassador of France to Ghana recalled that the figures are still growing every year.

In 2015 Agence Française de Développement (AFD) has a large portfolio of projects which represent 550 million dollars in such various sectors as agriculture, energy or rural development; it is a proof of its confidence in the economic future of the country.

H.E Frederic Clavier also said that the cooperation has progressed. The third Ghana-France Higher Education Conference took place in Accra last June; eight partnerships have been signed since 2013. Two more are expected this year.

An important agreement of mutual recognition of diplomas between Ghana and France has also been signed in June which will allow a better mobility of Ghanaian and French students.

In the meantime, the learning of French language is progressing thanks to the French departments of Universities and also thanks to the dynamism of the Alliances Françaises network.

In an interview with TV3 on Tuesday 14th of July, His Excellency Frédéric Clavier announced that two new projects will be launched in October: one to support the teaching of French in Ghana (1 million dollars for 2015-2018) and one to support civil society (300.000 dollars for 2015-2017).