TheJakartaPost
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
French seek investment openings in infrastructure
The French connection: The French Business Confederation (MEDEF) International president Philippe Louis-Dreyfus (center) talks at a media conference while French Ambassador to Jakarta Philippe Zeller (right) and MEDEF International vice chairman and CEO Thierry Courtaigne listen at the Vice Presidential Palace, on Wednesday
Change Size
T
span class="inline inline-center">The French connection: The French Business Confederation (MEDEF) International president Philippe Louis-Dreyfus (center) talks at a media conference while French Ambassador to Jakarta Philippe Zeller (right) and MEDEF International vice chairman and CEO Thierry Courtaigne listen at the Vice Presidential Palace, on Wednesday. The delegation met earlier with Vice President Boediono to discuss the participation of French companies in modernizing the Indonesian economy. JP/J. Adiguna
French entrepreneurs are seeking opportunities to invest in infrastructure, one of the biggest needs of the country to support its economic growth.
“French expertise on infrastructure may allow us to win investment competitions for developing
Indonesian infrastructure,” chairman of the French-Indonesia enterprises committee at MEDEF International Philippe Louis-Dreyfus told a press conference after meeting with Vice President Boediono on Wednesday.
He was leading 30 French entrepreneurs of the Mouvement des Entreprises de France (MEDEF) delegation on their two-day Indonesia visit to sound out the possibilities for investment in infrastructure.
After meeting with Boediono, the delegates held meetings with officials at the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry and others.
They were also scheduled to meet with business leaders at the Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Kadin) during their visit to be ended on Thursday.
Louis-Dreyfus said French enterprises could share their expertise not only in infrastructure but also in shipbuilding, electricity, finance, logistics, medical treatment, engineering, transportation and mining.
He said that French entrepreneurs were also keen to continuously explore investment in businesses which they were already working with. In shipbuilding, for example, France helped build a shipyard in Batam four years ago.
“We discovered that products which we built in our shipyard in Batam are quite sexy for other operators too. So we sell them to others, even to our competitors,” said Louis-Dreyfus, who is the CEO of Dreyfus Armateurs, a leading French shipyard firm.
He said French entrepreneurs were interested to follow up an Indonesia-France comprehensive partnership agreement signed by President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and President Nicolas Sarkozy in December.
Meanwhile, French Ambassador Philippe Zeller said that the MEDEF delegation’s visit reaffirmed the strong interest of French entrepreneurs in helping to modernize the Indonesian economy. (ebf)
