Emmanuel Macron is preparing to leave the international scene to return to the real world. The President of the Republic, whose agenda in recent times has been almost exclusively occupied by international issues with the conflict between Israel and Hamas and the war in Ukraine, intends to devote most of his activity from the 20th to November 24 to the French economy.
In the spring, the Head of State had already moved to the front line in the country’s economic affairs with a speech on French reindustrialization, on May 11, 2023, a visit the next day to Dunkirk in “the battery valley” to formalize the arrival of the giant electric battery factory (gigafactory) of the Taiwanese group ProLogium, and the organization of the Choose France summit, three days later in Versailles, in order to attract foreign investors. Six months later, he intends to personify a new “economic sequence” in the jargon of Elysée communicators. With a triptych of actions, “aid for businesses, decarbonization and reindustrialization”.
On the business aid side, Emmanuel Macron will present, on Tuesday November 21, an export support program for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and mid-sized companies (ETI). Around a hundred companies will be received on this occasion at the Elysée. The stakes are high as the country’s trade balance, very largely in deficit with 54 billion euros in the first half of 2023, “remains problematic”, we recognize at the Elysée. France has not had a trade surplus on the exchange of goods since 2002.
“Be stronger in exports”
“We are determined to fight this battle and help SMEs and mid-sized companies to be stronger in exporting”, explains the Presidency of the Republic. The economic fabric of small businesses is poorly developed in France, built more around large industrial groups, and French SMEs and ETIs remain much less exporting than their European neighbors. The approximately 146,000 French SMEs represent only 2% of the total value of exports, compared to 9% for the 3.5 million small and medium-sized enterprises in Germany and 54% in Italy (European record with 4.4 million SME).
The government’s support plan is less financial than organizational: the State wants to facilitate the access of SMEs and ETIs to its services with a one-stop shop and their greater presence in official delegations abroad. “We want to identify fast-growing SMEs and mid-sized companies, all economic sectors combined, and help them take a decisive step forward in terms of jobs and investments to develop”we explain at the Elysée.
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