Dhaka: France Ambassador in Dhaka Sophie Aubert has said a ‘stable and secure framework’ will help Bangladesh fulfill its dream to become a middle-income country by 2021.
‘Here in Bangladesh, we support the national goal of being a middle-income country (MIC) in 2021. That’s a dream and a goal, which will become reality within a stable and secure framework,’ she said terming the goal as an ‘exciting project’.

The diplomat made the remark in a message ahead of the National Day of France to be celebrated on 14 July.

Sophie Aubert said they feel that Bangladesh is living in a transition, and they want to be part of it. ‘We know we are one of the many partners Bangladesh have, but we want to develop a demanding relationship with Bangladesh. We want to increase our presence here,’ she said.

On climate issues, the diplomat said they and the French Embassy, through their local actions, want to show that climate change can be an opportunity to change ways of living, producing, consuming and assessing values in Bangladesh.

‘People have started to develop innovative solutions to tackle climate change. These solutions should become policies. Bangladesh is leading amazing projects in order to face climate impacts; reforestation, domestic solar panels… I thank Bangladesh for its longstanding involvement on climate change issues,’ she added.

Sophie Aubert said a special demanding relationship with Bangladesh means no concession. ‘Our companies are high technological companies, reliable companies. This means that with French companies, no ‘bad surprise’ will occur.’

She also said they want to develop partnerships with Bangladesh on many projects: for the launching of the first Bangladeshi satellite, ‘Bangabandhu Satellite’, the new water plant to provide Dhaka with drinkable water, the extension of the Chittagong Refinery that a French company had built 50 years ago.

She announced that the Embassy, along with the France-Bangladesh Chamber of commerce and industry, will organise this year the French Trade Show on November 27 and 28, at the brand new Le Méridien Hotel. ‘We also want to increase our relationships with our very longstanding partner in peacekeeping operations.’

France will soon have a new Embassy, the first French German collocated Embassy in the world.

The French Agency for Development has re-opened an office in Dhaka two years ago.

Identifying climate change a very important and common issue, the Ambassador said France will host the 21st conference of parties for international climate negotiations.

‘In France, we’re convinced our world has come to a turning point and that our global world is being challenged: either we’re able to create a new world, free of greenhouse gas emissions, with low carbon strategies, in order to maintain the global increase of temperature below 2 degrees Celsius by the end of the century; or we may fail.’

She said a failure would be a disaster for humanity, and all must work together to build a new world. ‘We can observe what has happened in India during the last weeks: more than 2500 people died because of heat wave. Climate change is not an idea, or a scientific issue: it is our reality.’