[FR] 🇫🇷 Entretien | [EN] 🇮🇳 Interview
Decoster: “Toward Stronger Partnerships with India”
The elected official from the Hauts-de-France region emphasizes the need for ongoing dialogue, which must be translated into concrete action
François Decoster, Vice President for Culture, Heritage, Regional Languages, and International Relations for the Hauts-de-France Region, is also the mayor of Saint-Omer.
He initiated and oversaw La Station de Saint-Omer, a workspace featuring a train station within its premises, of which La villa numeris was a founding partner and David Lacombled served as president in that capacity.
La villa numeris : You were in Lille on Friday for the Grand AI Summit and in Nice on Sunday for the opening of Bharat Innovates, the Indian innovation fair. The Hauts-de-France region has developed close ties with India. What are the motivations behind this, and what are the concrete outcomes?
François Decoster : Historically, our Hauts-de-France region has fewer ties with India than with other countries (Great Britain, the U.S., Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, China, Australia/New Zealand), even though we never forget the Indian soldiers who came to fight on our soil during World War I.
India is such a vast country, a civilization in its own right; it is too large to be ignored. One in seven people is Indian. And it is a country that is taking its rightful place in globalization, economically, technologically, and culturally.
It is therefore high time that Hauts-de-France opened up to Indian talents, investments, and projects in all these areas. All of this will be very beneficial to us economically and culturally.
President Macron has launched a plan to attract 30,000 Indian students by 2030. Together with Xavier Bertrand, President of the Regional Council, we hope that our region will play its part, as these students, researchers, and workers will bring projects that are useful and beneficial to our region.
In short, the France-India relationship is flourishing, as we saw at the AI Summits in Paris and then in New Delhi. I was able to witness this firsthand during the Macron-Modi meeting in Nice at the Bharat Innovates event, where we made a point of being present, the Hauts-de-France Region and our agency Nord France Invest, to attract some of the 120 Deep Tech startups present in our region.
La villa numeris : France and India share a deep mutual respect that is reflected in major economic and industrial projects. In the cultural sphere, are partnerships possible between two civilizations that may seem distant? How can technology contribute to this?
François Decoster : Though perhaps distant, our two cultures are nevertheless very rich, with promising prospects for exchange. This is precisely what technology and AI make possible. The Hauts-de-France region is very well-equipped culturally (Euracréative, Pictanovo, Séries Mania). The prospects for collaboration with clusters and organizations in India are therefore immense.
La villa numeris : India seems as difficult for Europeans to understand as Europe is for Indians. What steps should be taken to strengthen ties between the two?
François Decoster : The first step is to establish an ongoing dialogue. Such a dialogue already exists at the highest level, between President Macron and Prime Minister Modi. It is up to us to expand it to the regional level and with businesses.
Next, we need to develop stronger partnerships. At this stage, we have two partnership agreements with tech incubators (T-Hub in Hyderabad; iCreate in Ahmedabad), which I signed myself on June 12 during our “AI with Us” summit in Lille. And we are continuing on this path, including in the cultural sphere.
Finally, it is a matter of translating these partnerships into concrete actions: events, business setups, delegations, and visits. I myself travel to India at least once a year. With this three-pronged approach (dialogue, partnerships, actions), we are well-positioned to develop a solid, long-term relationship with a country that is already the world’s most populous and will be the world’s third-largest economy by 2030. All of this will naturally be very beneficial for our country and its people.