France reaffirms its commitment to cooperate with Brazil’s northeastern states

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The French government on Thursday reiterated its commitment to cooperate with the 9 states of Brazil’s Northeast region through an agreement established in 2019, which encouraged the investment of R$7 billion (about US$1.378 billion) from the European country in the area during the next two years.

“We have achieved important advances, and we want further to strengthen the presence of French companies in the Northeast,” declared the French ambassador to Brazil, Brigitte Collet, after a meeting in Recife, capital of Pernambuco, with representatives of the governments of the entire region, one of the poorest in the country.

The meeting was attended by governors Paulo Cámara (Pernambuco), Renán Filho (Alagoas), Fátima Bezerra (Rio Grande do Norte), Rui Costa (Bahia), Joao Azevedo (Paraiba), and Wéllington Días (Piauí), also president of the Northeast Consortium, a regional development group with a progressive political ideology.

French ambassador Brigitte Collet recalled the French Development Agency (AFD) projects in the region, mainly in the scientific, water, sanitation, environment, family agriculture, ecotourism, and renewable energy sectors.

The meeting celebrated two years since the signing of the agreement between France and the region, signed on July 29, 2019, which already brought a Brazilian political and commercial mission to the European country at the end of that year.

“Within the scope of our scientific cooperation, the Franco-Brazilian Network – created from the agreement – is working for sustainable development in the Northeast Semi-Arid”, one of the world’s driest regions that encompasses all 9 northeastern states, said the high diplomat.

Governor Cámara, in turn, highlighted the recent announcement of the French group Qair to produce green hydrogen in the seaport of Suape, with investments of US$3.8 billion.

This investment is added to another series of initiatives confirmed this month for this maritime terminal, such as the R$1.2 billion (about US$ 236.2 million) investment by the companies Nacional Gas and Liquigas-Copagaz to produce domestic gas.

Dias, meanwhile, stressed the importance of advancing in the implementation of the teaching of French as a foreign language in the public network.