Tuesday, February 21 2006 10:12 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

New Delhi: Committing to raise Indo-French cooperation to strategic partnership, France yesterday(Feb 20,2006) asked India to further open its retail, banking and insurance sectors to foreign direct investment to enable double the bilateral trade in five years from the present level of three billion dollar.

"France is committed to strategic partnership as we share same values of democracy, tolerence, freedom and secularism," French President Jacques Chirac told the captains of Indian industry, while asking India to open up its retail, banking and insurance sector further to enable French companies to participate in India's growth story which was a driving force for the world economy.

"We want an open economy. We want companies to be aware of their Corporate Social Responsibility. We want companies to maintain higher standards in labour, environment, human value which guide us in way we approach our partnership," Chirac said.

Noting that India was opening up its services sector, Chirac said France, which was a world leader in the area already had a presence. 'Companies like Alcatel, ST Microelectronics, Sanofi were already present in India.'

Asserting France has always supported India and was first to emphasise India's right to become a permanent member of UN Security Council as well as its participation in G-8 summits, Chirac said civilian nuclear energy was yet another area in which both the countries could deepen their cooperation.

Chirac said at a time when India is the sixth largest consumer of energy and a responsible nation, "We would have to make changes in civilian nuclear technology laws".

"We would like to help you secure your energy supply," he said.

Citing examples of Indo-French cooperation in corporate sector, Chirac said there was much to be done.

"We can go further," he said noting that the purchase of Airbus aircrafts by Indian private airlines like Kingfisher and Indigo could enhance sourcing of goods and services from India.

Chirac said French a large number of French companies had already established base like Renault, Michellin, Sanofi and were cooperating in multi country research projects like ITER(International Thermonuclear Energy Research) and Galileo Satellite project for telecommunications.

Observing that Indian companies like Tata, Birla, Infosys, Wipro had already become world leaders, Chirac said he along with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had decided to promote economic ties.

World needs India and its thinking on giving a human face to globalisation, he said.