Business diplomacy at its best
July 26, 2004 | 12:00am
Ambassador Renée Veyret is an extraordinary lady with an exceptional passion for her work. There is no other way to describe the lady ambassador from France and her dedication to the diplomatic service of her country. Dynamic, tireless, very knowledgeable and experienced, vibrant, articulate and chic, she is as gifted as she is driven to pursue what quite a number of French business leaders in the Philippines call business diplomacy par excellence.
I have still to hear anyone among my friends in the business community of France in the Philippines (and there are quite a number of them) say that she is not the best export France has ever sent to the Philippines.
One of my favorite ambassadors, Herbert Jess from Germany, an international law specialist with whom I’ve had great moments discussing those tricky violations of international law (I myself having been a former professor of Public and Private International Law among whose many students through 11 years of teaching happens to be President today) told me what an excellent functionary of her government Renée Veyret is.
A career diplomat, Renée is a licentiate of law, graduate of the Institute of Political Sciences of Grenoble and of the National Institute of Oriental Languages and Civilizations. Starting in ‘71 in the registrar department of her country’s ministry of foreign affairs in Paris, she rose from the ranks. From 1995-1999, served as ambassador to Bangladesh.
After a return stint at the ministry as head of the humanitarian action department, Renée found herself appointed ambassador to the Philippines. Thus began her excellent tenure in our country.
She is as chic as any French lady can hope to be. At the Bastille Day 2004 celebration on July 14, she was not only sparkling with the Veyret brand of enthusiasm but displayed likewise the Veyret kind of chic: easy, smart, simple, comfortable, not contrived, but chic as chic can be.
I first met Renée when she first arrived in our country a couple of years ago, at a dinner given by former Senator Leticia Shahani in her honor, when the latter invited some of the Filipino recipients of medals/awards from the government of France. (Ambassador Veyret, as is Letty Shahani, my friend Teddy Benigno and this writer were all recipients of the Legion of Honor medal from France.)
Among the guests at the dinner were former Secretary of Foreign Affairs Bobby Romulo, the gifted and prolific writer Virgie Moreno, the late Dr. Jose Maceda, and of course Lourdes Reyes Montinola. It was Lourdes who reminded me recently that when Renée delivered her response after Letty’s toast in impeccable French, she said that she was going to push the business dimension in the Philippines. Promoting cultural exchange has been an expensive proposition.
"Surprisingly," according to Lourdes who is a past president of Alliance Francaise de Manille, "the cultural dimension has been given an even stronger and wider push!"
This statement is so true. We just celebrated the 2004 French Spring in Manila, and under the supervision of Ambassador Veyret, all the performances were great.
From then on, those who have become Veyret watchers have noticed the spirit of this lady and the passion she gives to her work. At the Bastille Day reception, I saw my good-looking friend from France, Monsieur Robert Quelen of EON Inc. Robert particularly zeroed in on her extraordinary business diplomacy. He said, "She defines herself as a business ambassador, as she truly is. Everyone here can attest to the great support she has been in the promotion of French-Philippine cooperation in business."
The tenor of Robert’s statement has been echoed many times over. Every single French businessman that I know, every single Veyret watcher has said the same thing.
There is a very active French business community in the Philippines. Quite a number of them are members of a non-profit organization founded in 1988 simplistically called "Le Club," whose members have underscored the superlative and effective business diplomacy of Ambassador Veyret. There is not a single French business office in the Philippines that the ambassador has not visited, and the efficiency of her staff in this regard has been enviable. Covering such sectors as communications and information technology, agriculture, environment/energy, tourism, light and heavy industries, consumer goods, chemical/pharmaceutical/medical, transportation, etc., the hands-on support under the Veyret brand of business diplomacy has been admirable and inspiring.
Jean Claude Hue, president and country service officer of Alcatel Philippines Inc., pays tribute to the excellent performance of Ambassador Veyret and stresses the fact that aside from the great support she has furnished in relation to the business activity of Alcatel in the Philippines, there is the impressive manner in which she does all these: devoid of too much ceremony totally efficient and informal.
Jean Claude related to me how the ambassador graced the inauguration of the new Alcatel office at Petron Megaplaza recently. I can just imagine the informal, friendly air she exuded and the warmth she evoked from every guest at the event. Monsieur Hue is proud of the fact that Alcatel is one of the biggest players in the telecom market of today, finds the Philippine venue an exciting place for broadband. That’s true because in a relatively short span of time, 26 million subscribers have embraced the CMTS (cellular mobile telephone system) technology. He says that the Philippine business model has become a very interesting one.
Gigi Montinola – young banking leader, now senior executive VP of the Bank of the Philippine Islands, Alliance Francaise (AF) president who built a permanent home for the alliance, son of Lourdes Montinola, and also a former AF president – refers to Renée Veyret as the "most dynamic French Ambassador." (Gigi is a prime example of the young achiever who certainly has made a distinct mark in the Philippine banking community.)
A man I’ve known for years, Louis Paul Heussaff who founded a company called Supply Oilfields Services (SOS) 25 years ago after he married a Filipina and forged an exciting life in our country, cannot agree with Gigi Montinola more. SOS is an extremely progressive service company in the oil and energy sectors, has in fact with the Philippines as home base exported its services to about 22 countries worldwide. As one of the most successful French businessmen in the country today, he regards Renée as the most outstanding in business diplomacy.
Remember the celebrated play Amadeus shown not only on Broadway but in the Philippines under the aegis of Repertory Philippines? I saw it years ago and still remember how Salieri, the court composer, realizing young Mozart’s genius when he heard his music for the first time, contemplates his own mediocre gifts by comparison and confides: "Is it enough just to have passion?" The actor who portrayed Salieri posed that question to the audience. Before I could even be fully aware of it, someone from the Broadway audience got up, and with great emotion, shouted back, "Yes, passion is everything!" That woman in the audience was not planted. She was just too overcome by passion herself.
Yes indeed. It has been a privilege to witness Renée Veyret’s passion for business diplomacy. It has been working superbly. It is business diplomacy at its best.
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