Kiska officially visits France for first time

Slovak Economy Minister Peter Žiga, Foreign Ministry state secretary Lukáš Parízek and a delegation of Slovak businessmen accompany the president on his official visit to Paris.

Slovak President Andrej KiskaSlovak President Andrej Kiska (Source: TASR)

Slovak President Andrej Kiska arrived for his first two-day official visit to France on November 21 where he will meet the highest French constitutional officials and discuss the development of French-Slovak economic cooperation with business circles, the TASR newswire reported.

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After his arrival in Paris, Kiska pointed out that France is the sixth largest Slovak economic partner with more than 400 companies operating in Slovakia.

“French companies in Slovakia employ more than 50,000 people and mutual trade turnover reaches about €6 billion,” said Kiska, as quoted by TASR.

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Firstly, the president visited the centre for young innovative entrepreneurs NUMA where he attended a presentation and discussion about the centre and its activities in the field of startups. Kiska also showed his interest in the specific startup projects of the centre’s invention teams.

Vincent Toubol Flachaire, one of the teams’ leaders, explained that their project Goodeed is a startup with a social mission as it is based on ad-tracking assistance to non-government organisations (NGO).

“If the user watches an advertisement of one of the companies which promotes its products on our website, the company will pay a certain amount of money to the NGO chosen for support by the user,” Flachaire told TASR.

During the evening of the first day, Kiska also attended the Gala concert of the Slovak folk dance and music ensemble, Lúčnica at the Paris Maison de la Radio concert hall on the occasion of Slovakia’s EU presidency.

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Read also: President Kiska: November 17 is most significant day in Slovak modern history Read more 

The president will start the second day of his visit, by meeting with French President Francois Hollande in the Elysee Palace with whom he wants to talk about development of the European Union after Brexit, the situation in the Ukraine, the global position of the Union in the world and the upcoming presidential elections in France. Later, he will attend a meeting with representatives of the business association, Medef and will also visit the research and development centre of the PSA Peugeot-Citroen car-maker.

“Within the next programme, the president will also honour the memory of General Milan Rastislav Štefánik in Meudon and will meet up with fellow countrymen,” said spokesman for the president, Roman Krpelan, as cited by TASR.

Slovak Economy Minister Peter Žiga, the Foreign Ministry’s state secretary, Lukáš Parízek and a delegation of Slovak businessmen are accompanying the president on his visit to France, TASR wrote.

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