Opportunities in France

Diana Conconi, Senior Vice-President, Fleishman-Hillard and Director, The Empire Club of Canada; Jean-Charles Dion, Grade 12 Student, Toronto French School; The Rev. Canon Kimberley Beard, Sr. Pastor, St. Paul's On-the-Hill Anglican Church and Director, The Empire Club of Canada; Terrence Kavanagh, Executive Vice-President and COO, Tembec Inc.; Bernard Lette, Honorary Consul of the Principality of Monaco in Toronto, Vice-President and Past President, French Chamber of Commerce in Canada (Toronto Section) and Partner, Lette Whittaker; William Whittaker, QC, Partner, Lette Whittaker, 1st Vice-President and President-Elect, The Empire Club of Canada; William Greenhalgh, COO, Shred-it International; and His Excellency Daniel Jouanneau, Ambassador of France to Canada.

Introduction by Bart Mindszenthy

Ladies and gentlemen, our guest speaker today was to have been the Honourable Clara Gaymard, French Ambassador for International Investments. But Madame Gaymard, much to our dismay and regret, suffered a broken leg just the past few days. She had to forgo her planned trip to Canada and the United States.

So we had a very difficult choice to make. One--to cancel this lunch, which seemed to be a poor choice or two--to have this lunch, but present another speaker equal to the challenge.

We are fortunate today to have a very eminently equal to the challenge in the presence of Laurent Trupin.

And that is just perfect today, at a time when we must look at and assess the political, the societal, the financial and the emotionally based judgmental bonds and barriers that both link and divide our countries and continents.

This, after all, is not a comfortable time and place in the history of mankind's emergence and supposed advancement.

Yet we share common needs, hopes and aspirations.

And France, as a country and a culture, has over centuries past and decades more recent given much guidance and direction to the course of events, the emergence of the arts, advancement of the sciences, and our collective democratic values.

So we have come to learn and abide the reality that France has been and remains one of the real pacesetters of economic, social, artistic, fashion, and even more trends in the European Union.

And that is why, today, we are eager to hear from M. Trupin about where we are and where we likely will be in terms of business opportunities in France and across Europe.

Laurent Trupin was appointed General Manager and Chief Executive of Invest in France Agency in 2004. Based at the agency's headquarters in Paris, M. Trupin is responsible for co-ordinating, managing and implementing the organization's strategic plans.

He is an alumnus of the ESCP business school and a graduate of the Paris Institute of Political Science and the French National School of Public Administration.

To the mid-'90s he held various positions in government. He joined Carrefour, Europe's largest food retailing group, in 1999, and became regional manager for Eastern Europe in 2002.

Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome to the podium of the Empire Club of Canada the Chief Executive Officer of the Invest in France Agency, M. Laurent Trupin.

Laurent Trupin

Thank you very much Mr. President and thank you for the nice comments about my country. I am very happy to be here with you, ladies and gentlemen, and a little bit sad that Ms. Gaymard could not attend this event. She really apologizes for not being here today. As the president said, she has a knee injury due to a skiing accident, which prevents her from travelling abroad. She really would like to have been here with us today. The only negative point is that if she had been here, I would not have been here, and let's face it, I am happy to be here today.

Since we are doing apologies, sorry for the misuse of the English language that you will have to endure all through this speech. I hope you will not have too hard a time. If you do, please raise your hand and I will switch to the French language because I understand many people here speak French perfectly. Maybe it would be easier for everyone. I'm joking.

Today we will speak about France. I would like to show you a different image of my country from the one you may already have in your mind.

We have a French paradox. What is the French paradox?

The French paradox is about what everybody knows about France and, as the president said, it's a land of culture, a land of history, with historical links to you. I was in Detroit two days ago, and I was reminded that this city was founded by Mr. de Cadillac, who came from the north, from Canada. So again, we have historical links with this country.

We are seen as a country of "joie de vivre" where life is happy and goes forever. This is the traditional image of France but it is a paradox, as this is not completely true. Or, at least, it is not the only truth. There is such a great difference between reality and the way many perceive France. We are considered old-fashioned, unproductive, too expensive, and always striking.

But none of this is true. What the global business knows about France is that in 2003, France was the second country in the world, behind China, in welcoming foreign direct investments. And over a longer-term period--a 10-year period--France is number three. This means that the global business community likes France and likes to invest in France. And I would like that, by the end of my speech, you all think the same thing and want to invest in France.

France is on the move. It means that not only are we a country of history, but we are a country on the move.

We are the world's fifth-largest economy. I would like to remind you that Europe is the second-largest market in the world. When you are located in France, you are at the heart of the new European market with a population of 450 million people, who are potential consumers, who can be reached from the centre of France at a distance of 1,500 km. I believe that for North Americans, 1,500 km is nothing, so if you are located in the middle of France, you can reach 450 million consumers. This, for me, is very important.

We are on the move thanks to French and foreign companies who are investing in the country. The French government is committed to be business-friendly. We recently organized a meeting with 21 CEOs of large global corporations, French and foreign, to give new ideas to the French government and we are now in charge of implementing these ideas. This is all good; they are creative and they are changing the things that do not work in France. If you, in the audience, have any ideas for my country (I know some of you already have premises in France) or positive ideas that could change France and make it more attractive, I would be delighted to hear from you.

The outcome of this CEOs' meeting was the need to support business, to create new legal reforms, to create and attract new businesses and to encourage innovation.

The most recent change is the major relaxation of the 35-hour work week. This was probably the worst thing in terms of image that happened to France in the last 15 years. It was very painful for us to explain to entrepreneurs that in France we are hard-working, but only for 35 hours. Without the 35-hour week, we can convince people that the French are hard-working people committed to their companies.

Legal restrictions on collective dismissals are very important too, because they usually are the main problem that foreigners stress about France. I would like to make this point: we are in the process of changing this problem. We are at the first step and the government is really committed to more steps in the future.

More positive news again: I think France has the most interesting R&D tax system in Europe. Sometimes this is not without problems from the European Commission, but we can handle that. Well, this R&D tax system allows companies to really make profits thanks to their activities in France, and we attract many businesses for this reason.

I know that in Ontario you are very strong in the following sectors--bio-techs, new technologies, information systems, etc.--so I would be glad if we could arrange partnerships or cross fraternizations between companies in Ontario and companies in France in these sectors.

For those of you who are already convinced that you have to move to France, I am glad to announce that we increased the tax exemptions for people coming to work in France, for "impatriates," as we call them. Also, it will now be much easier to get a visa and to get a visa for the spouse too because you don't come alone; you usually come with your wife or husband and children.

We have made substantial improvements in international educational resources for children. This is very important for the families coming to France.

And of course, because we cannot do without this, we are lowering the corporate tax rate for all businesses.

I hope you now understand that France means business.

Here are a few sectors for which I believe we have French excellence: IT telecommunications, software, telecoms. This excellence was acquired thanks to foreign and national firms.

In biotech and life sciences, France is Europe's number-one drug producer and it is very easy and very fast to obtain approval on drug trials.

Of course we also have the automobile industry. We went to Detroit for the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) World Congress Career Fair last week, and it was very interesting to see that North American producers are very excited about what is happening in France. We have two big car producers in France-Peugeot and Renault. I think Renault represents well what we want France to be and what we want you to think about France. You see, 15 years ago, Renault used to be a state-owned company. Probably not run very well, Renault had quality problems, problems with the work force, and everybody thought this company should not exist. It existed only because the state was behind it using the taxpayers' money of course. Nowadays, Renault is one of the best-run companies in the world with the Brazilian born "Carlos Ghosn" at its head. Renault is making profits and selling high-quality vehicles. There are no strikes and no operating problems. This is the new France.

I will not dwell on the aerospace sector, as in Toronto you are very strong in this field too, but of course, I am thinking of Airbus and Arianespace.

There are also the more traditional industries, which are business drivers because other companies come to France thanks to these traditional businesses. The main traditional sector is the agro-food industry.

As you know, France has not a very good reputation of being a business-minded country. I would like now to kill five myths to change this reputation:

1. The first myth is that "all the French know is how to do wine and cheese." To be frank, we do know how to make wine and cheese, and we will continue to do so because I love wine and cheese. But this is not the only thing we do in France. For example, France has the highest percentage of 20 to 29-year-old young people with qualifications in science and technology. France has a higher percentage than the U.S. and the U.K. in that matter. This is little known and it is important you keep it in mind.

2. The second myth is that "the French don't work very hard." Let me stress one point: France has a higher productivity rate per worker than the U.S., Germany or the U.K. This is worth noting.

3. "It is too expensive to do business in France." I am glad to tell you that KPMG, a worldwide known reference, announced in a recent study that the cost of doing business in France is actually 1-per-cent cheaper than in the U.S. Did you know it was cheaper to do business in France than in America? This was surprising news to me when I joined the Invest in France Agency. As you can see, this is not the case for Japan, Germany or the Netherlands.

4. "France is paralyzed by strikes." I am not going to try to tell you that this isn't true. Unfortunately we do have strikes in France, but our loss of days per capita due to strikes in the private sector is lower than in the U.S. and in the U.K. My point is that in France the strikes are in the public sector. Public sector unions are doing a very good PR and communication job because, although they do not represent many people, they know how to manipulate information and be on the front pages, to let everybody know they are on strike. The strikes are in the public sector, and the public sector is shrinking, thanks to privatizations. This way we have fewer and fewer strikes.

5. "The French are only interested in enjoying life." We do enjoy life and the 130,000 expatriates who work in France do enjoy life as well. I don't hope for more clouds and more rain to prove to you that the French do not enjoy life. They enjoy life, but they are extremely dedicated to their companies. I will give you a personal feeling about this because I happen to have managed foreign investments in Eastern Europe, and I have seen, as some of you probably have too, that in some countries you can lose an employee to a competitor for a few dollars, say $50 or $100 a month. This is hard for employers who invest in their staff, train them, teach them the business, invest money, and all that for nothing if not the benefit of competitors. This does not exist in France because the French are dedicated to their companies and they are hard workers. This is the first thing I hear abroad from businessmen about France: France has a high level of labour force commitment.

That is about it, but again, as a business-minded person, I would like to introduce you to the people of Invest in France Agency who work near you: Michel Viger, head of Invest in France Agency North America (IFANA), Jean Cantoni in New York and Dario Alvarez who is in New York as well but who covers Canada and is one of our most interesting men. And here in Canada because we have no local office yet, we are helped by Mr. Gallissaires from the French Trade Commission.

These are the people who can help you if you want to start your business in France, or develop existing business in France. Our aims and our targets are to help you with incentives and subsidies, to maximize your success, to identify potential business partners and opportunities, to set up visits with regional bodies in France that will help you build your investment in this country. Finally, we will facilitate regulations and barriers. So we can help you on these points, and for whatever you need, we will be there for you.

Thank you very much for your attention. To reward you I would like to show you a short film entitled: "France, Old Perceptions and New Realities."

Thank you.

The appreciation of the meeting was expressed by William Whittaker, QC, Partner, Lette Whittaker, 1st Vice-President and President-Elect, The Empire Club of Canada.