Bangkok - Communist Laos, a former French colony, played host Tuesday at the opening of the 23rd francophone ministerial meeting, drawing delegates from 68 French-speaking countries to Vientiane. "For the past three decades, the francophone organization has been dedicated to the cause of peace and mutual cooperation in the world," said Lao President Choummali Saignason in his opening speech at the two-day meeting.
The main task of the meeting, which has attracted delegates from 55 French-speaking countries and 13 observer states of the International Francophonie Organization, is to prepare for the group's summit next year in Quebec, Canada.
Radio Vientiane, in a broadcast monitored in Bangkok, said Laos would use the conference to promote French as a "friendship language in the world."
French is still widely spoken among the Lao senior communist leadership, many of whom are in the 70s and 80s and studied in France in their youth. The landlocked country became a French colony in 1893 and stayed under colonial control until 1954.
Today, Lao youth and government officials are more inclined to study English, which has become the main international language for diplomacy and business in South-East Asia.
