After being collectively on the defensive for too long when it comes to the French fact in Quebec, it is time to go on the offensive by emphasizing loud and clear the benefits that businesses can derive from it. In addition to its importance in the world economy, the French fact concerns 16.5% of world GDP. While 20% of merchandise trade is done in French, it is also a fruitful vector of cultural diversity for businesses, which would benefit from using it more.
It is important to multiply the opportunities to highlight the French fact and to make it a tool of seduction in its own right. Moreover, the Fédération des chambres de commerce du Québec (FCCQ) is organizing a conference today, April 27, at the prestigious Harvard University entitled La Francophonie as an engine of growth for the Americas.
The place is not insignificant: this university is without doubt one of the most important centers of knowledge and innovation in the world. Better yet, everything will take place in French. This is an incredible opportunity to explain to an audience made up of students, researchers and guest diplomats how French is an important vector of economic growth not only for Quebec, but also for North America.
To make the most of it, however, Quebec needs allies from within. Here, I salute the audacity of Claire-Marie Brisson, a Franco-American professor with Quebec roots who, last fall, offered the first French-language studies course at this prestigious English-speaking university.
Nothing is won, of course. On the Canadian front, it is indeed important to raise the various problems encountered by the Francophone communities, where the dynamic is going in the opposite direction to what we observe internationally. While the use of French as the first language spoken in Canada would have increased from 22.2% in 2016 to 21.4% in 2021, several communities in the country are struggling to access essential public services in the language of Molière and Tremblay.
This affects companies from Francophone communities and working within them, which see their dynamism and growth weaken. It is therefore important to step up our efforts and our initiatives in order to promote the advantages of the French language. For example, thanks to the Quebec Secretariat for Canadian Relations, the FCCQ is working to integrate a French component into several events traditionally given exclusively in English in Canada: the Smart Energy Event 2023 in Halifax, the Canadian Mining Expo in Timmins, and another on the sidelines of the Collision Tech Conference in Toronto.
Renewable energies, natural resources, advanced technologies, there are a multitude of strategic and innovative sectors in which the French language must be able to take its rightful place. At the beginning of the year, the FCCQ took part in the creation of the Canadian Francophonie Economic Alliance (AFEC) aimed at defending the interests and promoting the development of member companies of chambers of commerce or business associations. Francophones across Canada. This interprovincial alliance will enable us to adopt a common vision, to develop a space of privileged economic relations for businesses and to increase trade.
It is also with this in mind that in 2019 the FCCQ created, in collaboration with Francophone organizations and the support of provincial governments, the Quebec-New Brunswick Innovation and Commercialization Award as well as the Ontario-Quebec Trade Award. in Francophonie in 2021.
With the support of its elected officials, the FCCQ reiterates that it is by creating these favorable conditions for exchange, cooperation, promotion and networking with other markets that we will be able to play a central role in protecting of this language which is so dear to us.