Mr. Philip Meunier, Vice-President of the French Region Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, visited the Pilsen Region for the first time. It was the French side who approached our region with a request for cooperation, and during a two-day visit companies from the Pilsen region were contacted by the region’s representatives, which could create interesting cooperation in several areas in the future.
Vice-President Philip Meunier opened the visit at the Regional Office on Monday, May 13, where he met President of the Pilsen Region Josef Bernard, Deputy Presidents Marcela Krejsová, Ivo Grüner and Pavel Čížek and member of the City Council Radka Trylčová. "After the merger of our regions, we have revised the existing cooperation and decided to establish another partnership where we would work and exchange experiences more closely," explained the Vice-President of the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes Region, which has nearly eight million inhabitants and is one of the most industrial regions in France. The French side, therefore, is most interested in cooperation in the industrial sector, so the Vice-President also met the representatives of the Chamber of Commerce and the managing directors of TS Plzeň (heavy engineering) and visited Škoda Transportation, where they exchanged contacts and outlined the possibilities of future cooperation.
“We are open to cooperation, we are pleased that the representatives of the region have addressed us and are interested in our region. Now we will clarify the priorities and areas in which we would like to cooperate, and then we are free to take particular steps, be it for example the exchange stays of our agriculture high school students in France or the presentation of our region in France and the like," said President of the Pilsen Region Josef Bernard.
On the first day of the visit, the Vice-President also visited the French Alliance where Director of the Alliance Rémy Fournier and Vice-President Ondřej Ženíšek introduced him to the functioning and main activities of the Alliance. They agreed on the possibility of student exchanges in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes Region. The Vice-President, accompanied by Ms. Celine Paris, Head of Unit for European Cooperation and Mobility, visited the Techmania Science Center and ended the day with working dinner with President of the Region Josef Bernard, Deputy President Ivana Bartošová and representatives of French companies operating in the Pilsen Region. Both sides confirmed their interest in cooperating in the industrial, education and tourism sectors. Specific cooperation steps will be negotiated during the following period.