Ecuador

Cultural, scientific and technical cooperation

France continues to hold great cultural prestige in Ecuador, where the work of Charles-Marie de la Condamine, who in the 18ᵗʰ century chose the Quito region to measure the length of one degree latitude at the equator, is still remembered. The role played by the ideals of the French Revolution in the emancipation process of Latin America also contributes to the close relationship between the two countries. French is still spoken by the political and intellectual elite. All Ecuadorian civil law is based on the Napoleonic Code.

We enjoy strong cultural, academic and technical relations: the prestige of the La Condamine French lycée (secondary school) in Quito, which was created in 1967 and had an enrolment of 1,408 in 2015-2016, and the Cuenca school with 175 students; the dynamism of the 5 Alliances Française branches and their 6000 students in 2014; and the growth of French teaching: 8,200 students are learning French in the Ecuadorian State system.

In 2014-2015, 530 Ecuadorian students were studying at French universities and about 40 at grandes écoles. France ranks fifth in terms of hosting Ecuadorian students. Over more than a decade, this mobility has greatly increased, from 182 students in 2000, to 285 in 2006 and over 400 today. A new Ecuadorian Ministry of Higher Education, entitled SENECYTE, has recently been launched in partnership with the Quito Alliance Française branch. It seeks to prepare high-achieving Ecuadorian high school students hoping to pursue studies in French scientific programmes.

The Institute of Research for Development (IRD) is involved in research and scientific cooperation work on environment-related themes such as volcanology and climate change. In 2016, the French Embassy launched the third French geodesic mission in Ecuador with a programme of scientific and cultural events.

In the field of culture, a cooperation project has been set up between FEMIS, the French film school, and the film faculty of Guayaquil University of the Arts. A major exhibition on shamanism in Ecuador opened in February 2016 at the Quai Branly Museum, followed by a Festival of Ecuador in France in the second half of the year.

An office of the Delegation for International Cooperation of the Ministry of the Interior (the first to be set up in Latin America, in 1976) conducts technical and operational cooperation projects in the fields of justice and policing. Cooperation has also grown in the fields of prison administration and the training of Ecuadorian judges.

Tourism agreements were signed in December 2006 and 2012. Within this framework, the two countries cooperate more specifically in the areas of adventure and mountain sports, which are becoming increasingly popular in Ecuador.