“The path is still long but the course is clear.” The Prime Minister, Jean Castex, mentioned “the essential” reindustrialization of France, Saturday February 19, during a visit to the armament group Nexter, in Roanne (Loire), where he confirmed two military orders totaling 1.8 billion euros.
“Between 1980 and the end of the 2010s, France lost an average of 50,000 industrial jobs each year. Over the past three years, we have, in net, recreated 30,000. The road is still long, but the course is clear. The course is essential”said the Prime Minister in a speech delivered in the factory of the armament group.
Reindustrializing the country is “a question of economic competitiveness, of employment, which allows unemployment to fall in an extremely spectacular way”he estimated.
The head of government, accompanied by the Minister for the Armed Forces, Florence Parly, signed a 600 million euro contract with the manufacturer to develop the Caesar NG artillery system, guns that are part of the Scorpion program of modernization of the army. Jean Castex also formalized another order, for 1.257 billion euros, also part of this program. This is a “complete renewal of the army equipment without precedent” in order to “repairing our operating capital”said the Prime Minister.
In this context, Jean Castex insisted on “reindustrialization in the defense sector as in other sectors”who is “once again become a categorical imperative”.
Emmanuel Macron announced in October an investment plan of 30 billion euros over five years, as part of a France 2030 plan aimed at developing industrial competitiveness, future technologies and “rebuilding the terms of a productive French and European independence”.