Recommendations for European Competitiveness
The recent World Investment Conference (WIC) in La Baule, France, hosted a series of workshops with panels composed of global business leaders, academics, investors and political leaders, resulting in a series of recommendations for European governments.
This collaborative approach sought solutions to ensure that European countries remain competitive and continue to be highly attractive to investors. There was a general consensus that recommendations should be not only reactive to current economic and social conditions, but also that they should be borne out of foresight and predictions of future conditions.
The suggestions, which sometimes amounted to impassioned pleas, included a request for France to create a business environment that would be more conducive to apprenticeships. Calls to streamline bureaucracy for small businesses in France have already been answered, so it is hoped that this latest request will also be recognised and responded to quickly. As conference attendee, Clara Gaymard, City Initiative Global Leader & President & CEO of General Electric (GE) France, pointed out, “10 years ago, France was not a country of entrepreneurship, but the fact is that now France has the most start-ups in Europe, because the business environment has provided the opportunities for those companies to be created.” (See Invest in France Agency’s page on recent labor reforms).
Other recommendations for Europe included the centralization of bureaucracy for SMEs, and a change in the culture of public-private partnerships to improve mutual trust. This would consequently help European countries to compete with the speed of getting projects underway in China – it takes around two months in China, compared to at least 18 in France, for example, as pointed out at the conference by Marc Duval-Destin, VP Automotive Research and Advanced Engineering for PSA Peugeot Citroën.
Another recommendation made was to centralize the promotion of innovation clusters in Europe and their attractiveness to foreign investors. Prof. Delphine Manceau of the Institute of Innovation and Competitiveness said, “Competitiveness for European countries is based on innovation in a world where it is difficult to compete on cost and prices, so the way to stimulate employment and build competitiveness today is to innovate. France has really benefited from its strong policy on clusters”. It is hoped that Europe as a whole can benefit from cluster promotion in the same way as France has done. As David Appia, Chairman and CEO of the Invest in France Agency asserted, “Promotion on a national and European level is equally important.”
Indeed, one overriding question that came out of the WIC workshops was why the whole of Europe shouldn’t have the research tax credit and the funding for innovation that France already enjoys. It was the general consensus that these are major factors in attracting big business to invest in the country, making France a global model in encouraging investment. Regarding GE’s investment program, Gaymard pointed out that, “The tax environment in France is much better than it was before, and of course, this has had a direct impact on GE’s strategy”.
GE is investing €45 million in signaling and public transportation in France, as well as investing in research, healthcare and hundreds of new staff for their engineering centre. “We believe in France, we invest in France, we believe in research and development in France”, added Gaymard.
Top photo: David Appia, far right; Prof. Delphine Manceau second from right.
For more information on investing in France, see Invest in France's listing.
