By:
• Cambodianess

• October 13, 2024 , 10:00 AM

Phnom Penh will succeed Paris as host of the Sommet de la Francophonie in 2026. This will only be the second time that Asia will welcome this event, Hanoi having done so in 1997.

While the summit held in France on Oct. 4 and 5 included around 50 heads of states and governments, representatives of more than 100 countries and regions including the 88 members of the Organisation internationale de la Francophonie—the international organization of countries and states that share a French heritage—Siem Reap and the temples of Angkor will be for a few days the world capital of a politico-linguistic universe that prides itself of having, beyond a language, common values that would make it a kind of French-speaking United Nations.

In a region of the world in which English has become the most widely spoken language for communication, keeping the French language alive is a struggle. The rarity of summits in Asia—the one in Siem Reap will be the 20th—testifies to this even though the late King Norodom Sihanouk worked alongside the other founding founders of the Francophonie—Léopold Sédar Senghor of Senegal, Habib Bourguiba of Tunisia, and Hamani Diori of Niger—the three of them born on African soil.

Apart from a fantastic promotion for the country’s tourism and cultural offer, does Cambodia have something to expect of this future diplomatic get-together of the Francophone family within its borders since the French language pales in comparison with English, which is the language of business and international exchanges?

Well then, let’s actually talk “business”…

According to the Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie, the number of French-speaking people in the world was estimated in 2022 at 321 million, which was 21 million people more than in 2018, making French the fifth most-spoken language after English, Chinese, Hindi and Spanish.

In sub-Saharan Africa and in the Indian Ocean, the number of people speaking French every day has increased by 15 percent between 2018 and 2022. When including the Maghreb region in North Africa, Francophone Africa is home to more than half the French-speaking people of the world. And in 2050, according to projections, among the 700 million French-speaking people, 80 percent will be living in Africa.

That's what we call, in business terms, a market, wouldn’t you say?

Is it known that the first pharmaceutical laboratory in Cambodia—PPM, that is, PharmaProduct Manufacturing—exports half of its production to French-speaking Africa. Proof that a common language is useful in business.

The future summit in Siem Reap could be a great opportunity to open more doors to Africa as long as we don’t forget here that, from Cambodia, Francophonie does not only lead to Paris or Montreal in Canada!