The Education Division in Paris co-organized the first Journée Taiwan with the Conférence des Présidents d’Université (CPU), Campus France and the French Bureau in Taipei (BFT) on June 24, 2013. This event attracted 49 French universities to participate.

The key focus of this event was to inform the French academic community about the extremely high intellectual caliber and established quality within both Taiwan’s academic and economic sectors, and the dynamism and opportunities that Taiwan presents. The event was opened with addresses from five officials: Jean‐Luc Nahel, Counselor for international relations at CPU; Hélène Duchêne, a Director at the Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs in charge of international cooperation in the culture, university education, and research fields; Marc Melka, Chief of Asian and African Affairs in the Department of International Cooperation of the Ministry of Higher Education and Research, and Antoine Grassin, Director General of Campus France. Taiwan’s Deputy Minister of Education, Dr. Huang Pi‐twan, could not personally attend but recorded a message which was played at the opening part of the forum. She summarized the on-going collaboration with France for education programs, and expressed her strong wishes to see a wider range of more diversified, customized, and ‘tuned-in’ approaches for cooperation in the future.

The first part of the forum was devoted to a general introduction to Taiwan’s current political and economic situation, and the on-going cultural, scientific and economic interactions between France and Taiwan. Ambassador Michel Lu launched his presentation with a lively puppet performance, reflecting the richness of Taiwan’s culture. His well-received overture was followed by BFT’s Cultural Counselor Christophe Gigaudaut who gave a high appraisal of various aspects of Taiwan.

The second part of the forum focused on academic cooperation. Meichen Lu, Director of the Education Division of the Taiwan Representative Office, talked about Taiwan’s higher education, and its wider international context, and Beatrice Chassaing, BFT’s Deputy Cultural Counselor, spoke more about this, outlining various approaches for cooperation.

Several French and Taiwanese executives delivered testimonials: Amy Chen, President of L’Oréal Taiwan; Philippe Archambault, President of Christian Dior Taiwan; Professor Lee Man-ying, President of HEC Business School’s Alumni Association; Bruno Heraud, director of international admissions at ESSEC school; and Professor Stéphane Corcuff from Sciences‐Po Lyon.