Saarland opens doors to Africa: New opportunities for business and culture!

Saarland opens doors to Africa: New opportunities for business and culture!

The Saarland state government has noticeably expanded the existing France strategy. This expansion, known as the Francophonie strategy, aims to strengthen relations between Saarland and Francophone Africa. This development will be presented at a central event at the Völklinger Hütte next week, at which management consultant Nadine Robert-Zehe from Saarbrücken will be the keynote speaker. Their focus is on the economic opportunities in North and West Africa that will be developed as part of this new strategy. According to the Saarbrücken newspaper The importance of this geographical orientation for the Saarland economy is becoming increasingly apparent.

As early as 2014, Saarland had formulated the claim to be a bridge between Germany and France with the original France strategy. The brand core of this strategy is based on the language skills and intercultural skills of the Saarlanders. In 2024, ten years after implementation, Prime Minister Anke Rehlinger initiated the evaluation and further development of the strategy by setting up a commission of experts. The findings of this commission are now being incorporated into the redesigned France Strategy+, which includes an expanded geographical dimension to take the entire Francophonie into account. This step represents significant progress in taking Saarland's observer status into account with the “Organization Internationale de la Francophonie”. The comprehensive proposals from the underlying Commission make it possible to redesign the strategy taking into account all policy areas, such as Saarland's official website reported.

Versatile goals of the strategy

The new Francophonie strategy aims to continue the existing multilingual approach while promoting intercultural skills. A central concern is to provide information about the added value of multilingualism for the people of Saarland. This strategy is expanded to all areas of life in order to act as a multifunctional strategy. In addition, low-threshold offers for language acquisition in French, English and other foreign languages ​​should be created.

Another focus of the strategy is to promote cross-border and international exchanges, especially for young people. These measures aim to strengthen the role of municipalities within the Francophonie strategy and to better exploit the economic, cultural and scientific potential of the Francophonie and France.

Transport mobility and future prospects

In addition, transport mobility will be promoted to ensure better connections to important cities such as Luxembourg, Brussels and Paris. As part of the strategy, concrete implementation steps will be determined over several years of feuilles de route, with the first being a detailed plan for spring 2025.

The developments surrounding the Francophonie strategy mark a significant opportunity for Saarland to expand international economic relations and strengthen its position in the Francophonie. These steps are of great relevance not only for the economy, but also for cultural integration.