FRANCE — November 29, 2010 — Christian Guinet, Commercial Manager (Textile division) of Stäubli
France had just been elected President of the French Association of Textile Machinery
Manufacturers’ Promotion Commission when the two conferences organized by UCMTF in Syria and Turkey
took placeon October 19 and 21, 2010.
Together with Evelyne Cholet, the Secretary General, he headed the French delegation. After
the events he stated “we organized these conferences because we recognize the importance of direct
communication between our customers and the top management of our companies. We consider our
customers as our partners and want to personally understand their needs. It was a real privilege to
receive so many well-known companies, we are very rewarded with these conferences outcome and we
look forward to meet all these dynamic companies again and again.
“Evelyne Cholet adds “to have a more direct and personal contact with our customers we
organized two conferences on both sides of the Syrian-Turkish border: one in Aleppo (Syria) and one
in Gaziantep (Turkey). This enabled us to focus on the particular specialities of each group and to
offer our customers the opportunity to listen and speak in their own languages.”
The French delegation included: N. Schlumberger, Laroche, Asselin-Thibeau, Andritz Perfojet,
SwissTex France, Superba, Stäubli, Ebelmann, Dollfus&Muller, AESA Air Engineering, Alliance
Machines Textiles, Rousselet, Callebaut de Blicquy.
The conference in Aleppo was inaugurated by the Syrian Vice-Minister of Industry, in charge
of the textile sector, Mr Farès Al-Shihabi, the Mayor of the City, the President of the Chamber of
Industry and of the Chamber of Commerce and was attended by many highranking officials and
industrialists. It was sponsored by the Syrian bank BEMO which presented a lecture on how to
finance such investments. During the morning, the French manufacturers introduced their latest
technologies and the afternoon was dedicated to face to face meetings.
The conference in Gaziantep was honoured by the mayor and the representatives of the
industry. Two affiliates of the leading French banking group, BNP Paribas (TEB Leasing and TEB
Factoring) introduced new financing opportunities.
The conferences helped the Syrian and Turkish companies understand how the French state of
the art, energy saving machinery can enable them to enhance their position on the global markets by
providing sustainable competitive advantages. Christian Guinet concluded that such conferences
should be organized as often as possible and told the local press he was really impressed by the
dynamism of the mostly family run companies working for their long run future.
Posted on November 30, 2010
Source: UCMTF
