1.
GV Finance Ministry
0.06

2.
SV & CU M. Blanchard (left and M. Collin sign agreement (2 shots)
0.19

3.
SV Officials watch Blanchard exchange agreement (2 shots)
0.28

4.
SV Pressmen
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5.
SV & CU M. N'Diaye and M. Mery sign (2 shots)
0.42

6.
SV & CU Blanchard speaking OAN to Collin
1.01

7.
GV PAN..from the four signers to pressmen listening
1.09



Initials PAF/MR/ES



Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved

Background: Agreements for French aid to Senegal totalling 325 million CFA Francs (429,000 sterling) were signed in Dakar on June 2. The aid will be used to improve groundnut production and telecommunications in the south.

The agreements, signed by Senegalese Finance Minister Jean Collin, and the head of the French Aid and Cooperation Mission, Rene Blanchard, provide 175 million CFA Francs (265,000 sterling) for development of an early-ripening and drought-resisting variety of groundnut. The new financing will extend the irrigation on plantations, increasing the groundnut production from 600 to 1000 kilogrammes per hectare (from 525 lbs to 882lbs per acre).

In a second agreement the French Central Economic Cooperation Fund agreed to give the Senegalese Post Office a long-term loan of 150 million CFA Francs (227,000 sterling) to improve telecommunications in the south of the country, including a telephone cable from Dakar to Thies, the country's main industrial centre 70 kilometres (43 miles) away.

The total cost of the telecommunications system is estimated at 791 million Francs (about 60 million sterling).