Friday, October 4, 2024 at 2:36 p.m.
Villers-Cotterêts (France) – The 19th Francophonie Summit, bringing together the heads of state and government of countries sharing French, opened Friday at the Cité internationale de la langue française at the Château de Villers-Cotterêts , north of Paris, under the theme: “Create, innovate and undertake in French”.
The head of government, Aziz Akhannouch represents His Majesty King Mohammed VI at this summit which should continue the next day at the Grand Palais in the French capital.
The opening ceremony was marked in particular by the inaugural speeches delivered by French President Emmanuel Macron and the Secretary General of the International Organization of La Francophonie (OIF), Louise Mushikiwabo, as well as by the transfer of powers of the presidency of the Summit between Tunisia and France which hosts, for the first time in thirty-three years, this leading international event to shape the future of the French-speaking world.
In addition to the ministerial segment and that of Heads of State and Government, this year’s Francophonie summit “is intended to be a moment of exchange with young creators and entrepreneurs through several events”, according to the new sequence format introduced during the Djerba Summit (Tunisia) in 2022.
On the first day of the summit, the Heads of State and Government will notably have to interact with around twenty young people from civil society around a round table on “La Francophonie in the digital age: challenges and opportunities”.
On the sidelines of political meetings, French-speaking cultures and know-how are in the spotlight until Sunday at the Village de la Francophonie, with national pavilions, at the “Refaire le monde” Festival and at the FrancoTech show dedicated to innovations in language French.
La Francophonie’s mission is to promote the French language and cultural and linguistic diversity, as well as the values of peace, democracy and human rights, in addition to supporting education, training, higher education and research, and the development of economic cooperation in the service of sustainable development.
With 321 million speakers on five continents, French is the fifth language spoken in the world and the third business language.
