Colas RA

62
Business report – Colas Group
In Madagascar, Colas and the Vanilla Road
Colas employees who are working on the Vanilla Road project in
Madagascar are fully aware of what this 300 km-long infrastructure
represents for the population in terms of development; the challenge
is to open up the “Malagasy black gold triangle”, constituted
by the towns of Sambava, Vohemar and Antala, which
produces half of the world’s supply of vanilla. Colas is doing its
utmost to optimize the outcome of the contract for the benefit
of the local community: base camp structures that can be redeployed,
training for local labor, health education in villages crossed
by the road. Colas has never abandoned the island of
Madagascar, even in periods of economic and political tension.
Construction of the Vanilla Road is yet a further occasion to demonstrate
the commitment Colas has to the country and a reminder
of the real significance of the profession of road building.
ENCOURAGING THE SPREAD OF IDEAS
AND KNOWLEDGE OF THE WORLD TO COLAS
EMPLOYEES AND EXTERNAL PARTNERS
FOR BETTER UNDERSTANDING OF SOCIETY
The public relations policy of the Colas Group covers three major
areas: the arts, through the Colas Foundation, which brings modern
art to the workplaces of Group employees; the humanities, social
and political science and economics, through the Colas Circle, which
invites contemporary thinkers and major players in modern society
as a whole to freely express their opinions on a key topic of their
choosing; and science, with the 2005 creation of the Colas Science
Symposiums, in partnership with the acknowledged French scientific
journal La Recherche, which brings scientists to the Campus for
Science and Techniques at Magny-les-Hameaux to talk on topics
such as physics, chemistry, technology, computer science and
mathematical and computer modeling. Last but not least, Colas is
also associated with other events such as a long-standing association
with the Marciac Jazz Festival and in 2005, with a partnership
with the cities of Nantes and Amiens for the Jules Verne centenary
celebrations.
2005 guest speakers at the Colas Circle
– Patrick Légeron, Psychiatrist at the Sainte-Anne Hospital Center
in Paris: “The psychology of change”;
– Catherine Wihtol de Wenden, Director of research at the CNRS:
“Should we open the borders to economic migration?”;
– Michel Serres, Member of the Académie Française:
“Globalization”;
– Marcel Bozonnet, Director General of the Comédie Française:
“The Comédie Française – a theatre and a business”;
– Pierre-Cyrille Hautcœur, Professor at the University of Paris I
Panthéon-Sorbonne: “Financial systems and the Franco-German
decline: a long-term perspective”.
Three Colas Science Symposiums in 2005
– “Forecasting climate” with Jean-Claude André, Director of
CERFACS, the European center for advanced research and training
in scientific calculation, and Philippe Courtier, Director of the
École Nationale des Ponts et Chaussées engineering school;
– “Can we reduce CO 2 in the atmosphere – through geological
storage?” with Christian Fouillac, Director of Research at the BRGM,
the bureau of geological and mining research, and François
Guyot, Professor at the Denis-Diderot University (Paris VII) and
Director of the Mineralogy Department;
– “Nanotechnologies to support technological development” with
André De Haan, Professor at the Faculté Polytechnique of Mons
University, Belgium, and Jean-Christophe Dumetz, Director General
of Nanotech SAS in Aix-en-Provence.