Vietnam to appear in French magazine for first time
Through a special edition of the famous Paris Match magazine, Vietnam will be introduced for the first time to French-speaking readers.
A 4-reporter group responsible for the edition arrived in Vietnam at the beginning of March and will leave in mid June to prepare for its publication scheduled for the end of the summer, right when Vietnam’s Premier Nguyen Tan Dung is preparing to visit France.
Reporter Christophe Bonami talked with Tien Phong about the coming special edition as well as its possible impact.
When did it occur to Paris Match to have a special edition about Vietnam?
1 year ago. At that time, Vietnam was achieving great macroeconomic success and the results at the end of 2006 reaffirmed Vietnam’s success. GDP growth was 8%, and FDI reached the record number of US $ 10 billion/ 84 million people, while with the population of 1.2 billion, China attracted US $ 50 billion in FDI. These numbers speak for themselves.
As for the Vietnam-France relationship, since the Francophone summit was held in Hanoi in 1997 there have been visits of high-ranking officials including top leaders of the Vietnamese Communist Party. President Chirac also visited Vietnam in October 2004 and China and Thailand last year. These events show that France is paying more and more attention to Asia, especially Vietnam.
What do French businesspeople see in Vietnam?
I believe nuclear power and tourism will be the two areas of interest in the coming years. Perhaps the French beat other people in tourism. Every year, France attracts 75 million tourists. As for tourism services providers, Accor is the second-biggest hotel corporation and Air France KLM is the leading airline in the world.
Can you talk about the structure and content of the coming edition?
There will be 3 versions simultaneously published with the total number of 200,000 copies to serve 1.2 million readers. The Paris version will target policy-makers in France. The second version will be Paris Match International, which will be distributed all over the world, especially in capitals and international airports. You should remember that 7% of our readers are CEOs of companies and financial organisations in the French-speaking world. The third version will be published in Belgium, where many important European (and EU) organisations are based. The EU now wants to increase ties, especially commercial ties, with ASEAN countries in order to compete against the increasing economic power of the US and China.
What will the special edition concentrate on?
There will be politicians, scholars and businesspeople talking about the future of Vietnam. There will also be multi-national corporations which contribute to creating Vietnam’s international image. And of course, there will be two individuals whom we can’t omit: the Vietnamese Prime Minister, who, from what I know, is very active in helping to create a new image for Vietnam, and the chairman of FPT. This company is the symbol of the Vietnamese economy, which is vigorously changing from an economy of agricultural production to that of high value-added industries.
Sai Gon Tiep Thi - March 23, 2007.
|