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OIF: Romania, main Francophone country of Central and Eastern Europe

Romania is still the main Francophone country of Central and Eastern Europe, given that about one quarter of its population has studied French, David Bongard, the head of the regional antenna for Central and Eastern European countries with the International Organization of La Francophonie (OIF) said on Monday.

'Romania and recently the Republic of Moldova are the main Francophone countries in the region. Romania has 9,300 teachers of French, an impressive figure, and 4.7 million Romanians out of a total of 21,5 million have studied French,' Swiss David Bongard told a press conference organized at the House of Switzerland on Monday, alongside Swiss Ambassador in Bucharest Livio Hurzeler and French Ambassador Henri Paul.

At the same time, he stressed the fact that 5,000 Romanian employees working in the central and local administration institutions were trained over the last year, within a project, in order to use this language in their work activity and to thus be able to participate in different projects of cooperation with the Francophone countries.

In his turn, Ambassador Henri Paul insisted on the importance of the connection of French speaking, young people and economy, saying that the youth learning and using French at an advanced level had the opportunity of working with the large French companies already operating in Romania, but also of studying and getting jobs in France, Romania's fourth largest trade partner.

In March, several cultural-educational events are going to be organized in Bucharest and in other three large university centres of Romania, namely Iasi (eastern Romania), Timisoara (western Romania) and Cluj (central-western Romania), on the occasion of the traditional Month of Francophonie, celebrated every spring with the support of the diplomatic missions and the Francophone institutions present in Romania.

Thus, the four large cities will host poetry and essay contests, workshops for high-school pupils, concerts, theatre shows, exhibitions and a university fair.One of the most expected events is the Francophone Film Festival, which is going to be held this year also at the Elvira Popesco Hall of the French Cultural Institute, between March 25 and 30.

Romania became OIF observer member at the 1991 Versailles Summit and in 1993 it obtained the full member status at the next summit held in Mauritius. In 2006, Bucharest hosted the 11th Summit of Francophonie, devoted to 'information technologies in education,' Romania being the first country in Central and Eastern Europe to have hosted a Francophonie Summit.

Sursa: http://www.actmedia.eu

Tags: romania europe french eastern central francophone country

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