Christine Lagarde welcomes latest inward-investment figures
Interview given by Mme Christine Lagarde, Minister Delegate for Foreign Trade, to the “Le Figaro” newspaper (excerpts)
Paris, 28 February 2007
Q. – The French are sceptical about globalization. Do the figures show they’re right, or, on the contrary, that it’s beneficial to France?
THE MINISTER – France is gaining greatly from globalization. In 2006, she attracted foreign direct investment (FDI) of €58.4 billion (including company buyouts and financial transactions), making us the world’s third-largest recipient. And last year 40,000 jobs were created or maintained thanks to the money invested by foreign companies in our country – 80% of which for brand new companies. This figure has risen by 33% over one year. Yet the number of successful projects – 665 – is only 2% up on 2005. This means that the projects are generating more and more jobs.
The German firm “Arvato Bertelsmann”, for example, has created 500 jobs for a call centre in Le Havre, the Canadian “Modulex” 450 in the Vosges, Swiss “Jet Aviation” 400 in Mulhouse and the Finnish “Fonecta” 350 in Reims. Last year, 64% of the jobs created were in industry. The proportion of new research establishment posts is rising, whereas that of new head office jobs is falling.
Q. – Have the competitive clusters had an impact?
THE MINISTER – Without any doubt. The increase in new jobs in some regions shows the first signs of a correlation between our investment attractiveness and the clusters. In Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur, for example, where there are two global clusters, the number of jobs created by foreign investors has doubled in a year. In Picardie it has increased fourfold to 1,300 and in Champagne-Ardenne, which has the industrial, agri-resources competitive cluster, ninefold.
Still more encouraging, the bosses I meet are satisfied with the way the regions, the local authorities and the Invest in France Agency coordinate their efforts. We know what our strong points are: the high calibre of the teams, workforce and training. We know too that with a bit more flexibility, particularly in the labour market, we would attract more investment!
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Q. – Isn’t it a bit paradoxical to make huge efforts to attract foreign investors while trying to erect barriers around our firms?
THE MINISTER – Our reputation is overblown. France isn’t a protectionist country! The Mittal/Arcelor merger happened whilst on the other side of the Atlantic, Congress got so worked up in its efforts to prevent the Chinese CNOOC buying Unocol that in the end CNOOC gave up. The problem in our country is the gap between discourse and economic reality. This is enough to present an abysmal image. By drawing up a list of sensitive sectors which the State has a right to be informed about, we also lay ourselves open to criticism, whereas the United States does the same thing while remaining more vague. But, at the end of the day, our legal environment is more transparent and so more reassuring since companies know what to expect./.