INTERVIEWING THE French AMBASSADOR TO MALAYSIA

My colleague Voon and I return with another interview series. This time, it's with the French Ambassador, H.E. Mr Roland Galharague!

Over the course of 40 minutes, we talked about:

• France-Malaysia history: French explorers have been to our region since the 16th century -- with the first maps of our region, palm oil and not forgetting Ayam Brand all introduced by French people
• Strategic priorities: For Malaysia to be France's principal partner (read: go to partner) in Southeast Asia/ASEAN and for France to be Malaysia's principal partner in Europe/European Union
• Trade: Malaysia is France's 2nd biggest market in ASEAN after Germany but Ambassador says it should be bigger! We talked about the presence of over 300-500 French companies creating over 10,000 jobs for Malaysians in all sectors
• Education & cultural cooperation: 15,000 Malaysians are learning French through Alliance Francaise! France wants more of its films and foods to be consumed by Malaysians.
• Everything else in between: We talked about France's Indo-Pacific Strategy for Malaysia, climate cooperation and strategic autonomy

If you prefer a podcast, you listen to it here.