France’s economy minister wants global investors to know that the country known for handcrafted cheeses, wine and luxury apparel — all of which take time to make — is ready to speed up in order to embrace technology’s startup culture.
French Minister of Finance Emmanuel Macron told reporters in an interview on Friday that his top priority for this year is to attract private investment to the country’s fledgling yet growing tech industry.
To do so, he is emphasizing to investors and technology executives in the US that his country has relaxed some of its famously stringent workplace protections so that companies can restructure or lay off workers in order to be more nimble and competitive.
Photo: AFP
“We have to provide more visibility, more certainty to the investors and reduce the cost of failure,” he said, speaking before a reception at the French consul-general’s home near San Francisco’s Haight-Ashbury district.
Macron, 38, is an unabashed admirer of tech innovation and competitiveness, making him a controversial figure within a party where opponents fear he is pushing the country toward a US-style model that does not do enough to protect workers.
In July, for example, the French government approved an economic reform bill championed by Macron. Among other things, the law allows stores in France to open 12 times per year on Sunday instead of five and lets stores expand evening hours. France’s 35-hour workweek law was unaffected.
However, on Friday he said that French workers should not worry that the country will turn into the US — overnight or ever.
France is not the US, nor does it want to be, he said.
“At the same time, what we have to do in France is to adapt the country to globalization and we have to accelerate, because everything is about speed,” Macron said.
Macron has spent the past two days at the annual gadget extravaganza known as the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.
There were nearly 200 French startups at the show, the most of any European country, he said, adding that France creates about 1,500 startup companies per year, many in healthcare, energy and mobility.
He met with entrepreneurs and investors in Silicon Valley and San Francisco on Friday and had scheduled more meetings for yesterday.
Asked if he had a message for the French public, Macron said he was impressed by the relentless drive for innovation and speed seen in investors and executives, even those already considered successful.
“My key message is be innovative, be ambitious, think global and big on day one,” Macron said. “Otherwise you have people here thinking global for you.”
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