The Minister Delegate for Industry was the guest of “8:30 a.m. franceinfo”, Sunday May 14, 2023.
Roland Lescure, Minister Delegate for Industry, was the guest of “8:30 am franceinfo”, Sunday May 14, 2023. The Choose France summit, reindustrialization and the pharmaceutical industry… He answers questions from Lorrain Sénéchal and Neila Latrous.
Choose France at the Palace of Versailles: “We are going to have record amounts in terms of investments”
“It is an unmissable event that has established itself in six years as the meeting point for foreign investment in France and Europe”, said Roland Lescure. In total, “we were at 10 billion last year. It will be more [cette année]. Big investments are important“, insisted Roland Lescure who welcomed the installation in Dunkirk of the Taiwanese group ProLogium to manufacture batteries. “We are decarbonizing the industry and we are doing it by attracting foreign capital.”
Sarreguemines investment: an investment of “700 million” euros representing 1,700 jobs
“We are showing that if we want to decarbonize industry, make decarbonized energy, it is better to do it in France, but also to produce the products that will make it possible to produce it”, said Roland Lescure while a photovoltaic plant will open in 2025 in Hambach, near Sarreguemines (Moselle). By 2027, 1,700 jobs will be created there. This investment of 710 million euros will be one of the projects presented by Emmanuel Macron this Monday at the Choose France summit. “For years, we have subsidized photovoltaic panels made at the end of the world, there, we will have photovoltaic panels ‘made in France’, as we will have batteries ‘made in France’, electric cars ‘made in France’ It’s concrete ecology. We’re going to make the products we’re going to consume in France. We’re going to create jobs.”he assures.
France is the European champion for foreign investment, according to the barometer of attractiveness published Thursday and carried out by the firm EY (Ernst & Young). This shows that we have “a lot more investment than anywhere else, but that by investment, we create a little less jobs.” This is explained by the fact that the research centers set up in France employ researchers and engineers, but few workers.
Foreign investments criticized: “We have to convince investors to come and stay”
“I’m fed up with this misery and the half-empty glass syndrome”, reacted Roland Lescure while the unions say that foreign investors come to France and then leave with the know-how. An opinion shared by the LR MEP, François-Xavier Bellamy, who denounces the takeover “of our economy by foreign capital.” Roland Lescure recalled that we “we have record investments in France, we are creating industrial jobs when the previous majorities have destroyed them, we have investment in low-carbon industries, we have French investors who are investing in France, we must stop opposing investors .”
During negotiations with foreign investors, “Obviously we are discussing employment and the green tax credit, obviously it is conditioned”, assured Roland Lescure. The Minister Delegate recalled that “When you close a door, it closes in both directions. If you tell investors, ‘you will never leave France, they will not come to France’. The reality is that you have to convince investors to come and stay.”
Pharmaceutical industry: “A strategic approach” to deal with the shortage
If we run out of medicine, it’s because “For about twenty years, we were naive. We thought that if the drugs were produced at the end of the world in one place, everything would be fine.” As a result, the crises were managed “case by case.” “With François Braun, we decided that on a case-by-case basis, it was five minutes and that we had to have a strategic approach. We are in the process of identifying around forty critical drugs to treat major diseases, cancer, heart disease , antiepileptics, in particular, explained Roland Lescure. For this quarantine of drugs, “a reindustrialization strategy in France, i.e. access to diversified sources in Europe”will be implemented. “We are going to make sure that we can deal with crises. For example for paracetamol, we are in the process of relocating the active ingredient. In two to three years, we will have it” in Isere.
Find the entire “8h30 franceinfo” of the Sunday May 14: