Ivory Coast President Alassane Ouattara on Friday urged French companies to resume investing in the west African country less than a year after his predecessor was ousted in a bloody conflict.
"Without security, without stability, without peace, growth cannot be strong and enduring. I can tell you that peace has returned to Ivory Coast," Ouattara told a gathering of French business chiefs.
"I ask you to associate yourselves with the Ivorian rebirth and to resume your investments, and I urge you... to accelerate your return to Ivory Coast," he said, speaking on the last day of a three-day visit.
Ouattara was on his first state visit to France since French troops helped oust his predecessor, Laurent Gbagbo, last year.
He held hour-long talks with President Nicolas Sarkozy on Thursday and the two signed a joint security agreement that will see French forces in the country assist in local security training.
Outside the oil sector, France is Ivory Coast's largest trading partner. The cocoa-rich country is the biggest economy in mainly French-speaking west Africa.
French companies employ about 40,000 people in Ivory Coast, contribute 30 percent of its gross domestic product and provide 50 percent of its tax revenues.
France was a key ally of Ouattara after Gbagbo refused to stand down despite having lost a November 2010 presidential election. Around 3,000 people died in the ensuing violence.
A push to Ivory Coast's main city Abidjan by pro-Ouattara forces backed by French and UN forces eventually toppled Gbagbo, who was taken prisoner and now faces war crimes charges at the International Criminal Court in The Hague.
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