After months of procrastination and nights of arbitration, it is finally out of the ground. Emmanuel Macron presents, Tuesday, October 12, his France 2030 plan, at the Elysee Palace, in front of the entire government and an audience of some 200 students, institutional investors, start-ups and manufacturers, as well as some researchers and academics. One way to broaden the scope of this new opus of Emmanuel Macron’s economic policy, clearly oriented towards businesses and intended to project the French economy towards the end of the decade. His ambition: “Better understand, better live, better produce”, according to the head of state.
This plan will be broken down into 30 billion euros invested over five years in around ten“Everyday objects”, supplemented by 4 billion euros invested in equity, through equity investments in growing companies. For the government, the time has come to strengthen the country’s industrial sovereignty by focusing on innovation and production, while the crisis due to Covid has reminded us of the persistent weaknesses of France, with episodes of shortage in critical moments, and its backwardness in research when it came to developing a vaccine. The plan is also a tacit response to the French industrial decline, pointed out by many opposition candidates.
“Anticipate and accelerate”
The objective is therefore to “Building the France of 2030” and of “To bring out in our country and in Europe the champions of tomorrow”, as Emmanuel Macron explained in July. Monday at the National Assembly, the Minister of the Economy, Bruno Le Maire, also recalled the need to “Strengthen our industrial base beyond our current fields of excellence in aeronautics, luxury goods, medicine or the food industry”. The executive, which claims to have consulted extensively in recent weeks after the initial copy was crossed out this summer, has identified key areas in which the state would be legitimate to invest.
In detail, 8 billion euros will be devoted to energy and decarbonization (nuclear, hydrogen, electrification of industry), 4 billion to transport (batteries, low-carbon aircraft), 2 billion to the development of a “Healthy, sustainable and traceable food” (including 500 million euros in equity), 3 billion in order to produce in France twenty biomedicines (against cancer, chronic diseases) and to create “Medical devices of tomorrow”, and 2 billion for culture, space and seabed exploration. In addition, 1 billion (as well as 500 million in equity) will be invested to secure access to strategic raw materials, 6 billion in components, particularly in electronics and robotics, 2.5 billion in training to support these new industrial sectors and 5 billion for start-ups (2 billion in subsidies, 3 billion in equity).
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