With the lifting by the Belgian judiciary of the international arrest warrant against him, French aerospace chief Serge Dassault (right) plans several inter-national trips in the coming months.
"I am now free to travel abroad and am glad to resume my normal international activities," Dassault told reporters at Le Bourget.
First call for Dassault, whose eponymous company builds the Mirage and Rafale combat aircraft and Falcon corporate jet, is the opening of a new Dassault Falcon business jet plant in Teterboro, New York, in mid-July.
The jovial 70-year-old magnate then plans to attend TATE '97 the Taiwan Aerospace and Tech-nology Exhibition in Taipei from 14-18 August.
The Taiwanese are taking delivery of 60 Dassault Mirage 2000-5 combat aircraft, and Dassault Industries has made considerable investments in Taiwan aerospace and other industries as part of an offset deal.
A Belgian court last year issued an international arrest warrant against Dassault as part of an investigation into claims that he paid Bfr600million in "kick-backs" to Belgian politicians in the late 1980s to secure a contract to fit air defence systems to the Belgian Air Force's F-16s.
Dassault has repeatedly denied any wrong-doing and supplied the information requested, but refused to travel to Brussels to answer magistrates' questions, for fear of being jailed - as happened to another leading French industrialist, the head of the powerful Schneider company.
The international arrest warrant was officially lifted in Brussels on 13 June, on the eve of the Paris show.
Dassault Aviation posted a consolidated net income of FFr1,147billion, compared with Ffr526million in 1995.
Asked whether the new French Socialist government would press for a merger of state-owned Aerospatiale with private-owned Dassault Aviation, Dassault replies: "It would be in the interests of all concerned that they do so, provided Aerospatiale is privatised.
"If not, it would not be dramatic for us. We have plenty of business on our plate, for many years to come."
Privatisation
Dassault insists on a privatisation of at least 51% of Aerospatiale, eventually going to 100%.
"Otherwise it would amount to a nationalisation of Dassault Aviation, which nobody wants."
The previous right-wing government had started negotiating a 10% reduction in the price of the Rafale and planned to purchase 48 of them. The new left-wing government of Lionel Jospin is pursuing the talks, which may result in a deal by the end of the year.
Responding to questions about reports that Taiwan is planning to purchase an additional 60 Mirage 2000-5 aircraft, Dassault replies: "We are not aware of any such move."
Asked about Indonesia where plans to buy nine F-16 warplanes from the United States were dropped following what President Suharto called "...unjustified criticism" in the US Congress, Dassault says: "We put bids everywhere we can... yes, we are present in Indonesia.."
Dassault appears confident that the United Arab Emirates before the end of the year purchase 20 Mirage 2000-5 aircraft and also buy the Rafale combat aircraft as part of its plans to purchase 60 to 80 new generation combat planes.
Source: Flight Daily News
