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PARIS - PRIME Minister Lee Hsien Loong will arrive in Paris on Monday morning for a three-day official visit to France, before heading to Switzerland, to attend the annual World Economic Forum meeting in Davos.
Mr Lee has a busy day on arrival. He will hold talks with French President Nicolas Sarkozy at the Elysee Palace, and meet with Prime Minister Francois Fillon and Minister for Foreign and European Affairs Bernard Kouchner.
While in Paris, he will also meet the Finance and Economics Minister Christine Lagarde and Defence Minister Herve Morin.
This visit, Mr Lee's second to France since becoming PM, will thus give him a chance to get to know France's new generation of leaders better. He was last in France in Nov 2005, and this will be his first meeting with its new President.
On Wednesday, Mr Lee will also address French corporate chiefs at a session organised by the French Business Confederation. He is expected to use these meetings to highlight the importance of Asia and Asean to France, speaking not only as Singapore's leader, but in Singapore's capacity as the current Asean chair.
Mr Lee's visit comes at a time when France is grappling with the prospect of wrenching changes, with Mr Sarkozy declaring last week that he planned to deliver on his election promise of 'radical change', including scrapping by year end the controversial 35-hour work week, which many say has hurt French economic competitiveness.
In a new year address, he also spoke about his 'policy of civilisation', a catch-all phrase referring to his ambitious plans to 'rebuild benchmarks, standards, rules' to help boost France's economy and place in the world.
Many, including his Singapore guests, will be watching to see how he fleshes out and delivers on these plans.
Mr Sarkozy has also taken an interest in Asia and will be heading to India later this week, and will no doubt be interested in getting a reading on developments there.
On Wednesday, Mr Lee and his delegation will leave for Switzerland for the Davos meetings, which will be attended by over 2,500 political, business, non-governmental and media leaders from 88 countries.
The annual meeting, which has been held in the little Swiss alpine resort since 1971, has over the years become something of a bellwether for the big issues of the day.
On the agenda this year: prospects of an economic downturn in the United States and its impact on the world economy and how to follow up on tackling climate change after last December's United Nation's meeting in Bali.
Read the full report in Monday's edition of The Straits Times.
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