President Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah is pleased with the Namibia-French bilateral relations that have been strengthened in various sectors.

Dr. Nandi-Ndaitwah thus commended France's Ambassador to Namibia, Cécile Vigneau, during a courtesy call at State House.

The Head of State says she has observed the work and assignment of Ambassador Vigneau in promoting bilateral cooperation.

"You must really be enjoying your work here because when the ambassador is busy, then you enjoy your work, and ambassadors don't like to be bored. I am really happy that you are here and you are working in order to ensure that the relationship between the two countries remains strong, and for us, that is really what we are looking for in these areas of our cooperation; we really appreciate it."
The Namibia-French economic cooperation is mostly driven by collaboration in groundwater resources, energy efficiency, entrepreneurship, banking, education, cultural fields and others.

Although French companies have a solid private sector presence in various sectors in Namibia, France's embassy describes the trade volumes as modest.

They registered between 100 and 200 million euros in total in recent years, and Ambassador Vigneau notes the need for more development cooperation based on the priority areas of Nandi-Ndaitwah's administration.

"We looked very carefully at what your orientations and policies will be during your mandate, and we are very eager to see how France can fit in and accompany and support in bilateral matters and multilaterally as we, Namibia and France, put in a lot of important work on fundamental principles of multilateralism and the current situation. The world today is not the world we used to know, and I think countries like ours can work together to make things go better and respond to the needs of our people."

The French Head of Mission also conveyed a message of congratulations to President Nandi-Ndaitwah from President Emmanuel Macron following her election and subsequent inauguration as the 5th Head of State.