JEDDAH, 13 June 2003 — The Saudi private sector is keen to seek more French expertise in the service industry.
This was discussed at a meeting held at the Jeddah Chamber of Commerce and Industry on Wednesday.
The meeting between Arab French Chamber of Commerce President M. Serge Boidevaix and JCCI Vice Chairman Ghassan Ahmad Al-Sulaiman decided to organize the visit of a high-level Saudi business delegation to France in October. The delegation will consist of businessmen active in the tourism and entertainment sectors.
“There is vast potential for further boosting our trade ties,” Boidevaix told a press conference after the meeting. “Our priorities include sectors like engineering, oil and gas, and service,” he said.
Boidevaix, accompanied by French Ambassador Bernard Poletti and Consul General Jean Wiet, described his visit as the first after his election as the Paris-based chamber’s president two months ago. The current tour covers Riyadh and Dammam.
“The Kingdom is very important to France both at regional and world levels. Bilateral trade was worth SR15.6 billion in 2002 against SR14.6 billion in the previous year,” Boidevaix said.
“We hope to strengthen our cooperation with France to meet the increasing demand from service and training sectors, especially in Makkah and Madinah. It will also be our aim to evaluate new investment potential in these sectors,” Al-Sulaiman said.
“France is considered to have the best of expertise in training and tourism and so we hope to benefit from that country,” he said. The French ambassador denied that his country’s mission in the Kingdom had been taking time to issue visas to Saudis.
“We’re part of Schengen, which has a membership of 15 countries. We cannot unilaterally impose a visa procedure but have to go with the Schengen-laid procedure. We’re taking an average of 10 days to issue a visa as the procedure involves referring details to all the other Schengen members, and the time taken is the same as all the other member countries,” he said.
