Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, August 2) — French Ambassador to the Philippines Michèle Boccoz has ended her stay in the country with an emphasis on investing in the future generation.
In her parting words, Boccoz pointed out the need to invest and provide more opportunities to young people, seeing this as a way to further build stronger ties between both countries.
I would say ‘future-looking’ because of the youth, because of the young generation. We see it expanding and that’s what we want to build on because the young generations are the ones taking us to the future, the innovation, and they’re bringing us together,” the envoy said.
She granted CNN Philippines her last one-on-one interview before she wraps up her duties.
Boccoz said future-looking extends to the French government’s goal of accepting more students by 2025.So that’s a commitment, that’s something we want to do. We want to bring more young people together, that’s the hope of our people in our country. So definitely, future-looking, and again, comes from the heart. And I think both our hearts are really close together,” said Boccoz.
Partnership of hearts
The French envoy enumerated the roadmap of priorities set by President Bongbong Marcos and French President Emmanuel Macron. The roadmap covers cooperation in defense and security, food security, climate change, renewable energy, and people-to-people exchanges.
Boccoz said that while political and economic ties are growing there is also one aspect of Philippine-France relations that needs to be highlighted and that is what she calls a partnership of hearts.
Bringing more people together is very important. We started developing all these wonderful times with our 75th anniversary. This was jointly celebrated in France and the Philippines and that was an opportunity to show how close we are. How close our hearts are together. For me, it’s really important and from there, everything can grow,” she added.’ ’10’:
Boccoz looked back on her diplomatic career so far, saying it wasn’t all glitz and glamour, but a lot of work.Yes, I think people have some a very limited view on what an ambassador’s life is. It’s a lot of work,” she said.You know this glamorous image is maybe I don’t know maybe one percent of what we do but actually most of our lives is doing the economic and political and social aspects and reaching out to all works of life,” Boccoz added.The ambassador credits the team she works with, lauding their commitment and work ethic.She also recalled her two-and-half year stay in the Philippines as life-changing.I think it has changed me,” she said.
