Ambassador s Activities 2013 Distributor: French Embassy in the UK - Press and Communications Services - 58 Knightsbridge, SW1X 7JT London E-Mail: press@ambafrance-uk.org Web: Speech by HE Bernard Emié, French Ambassador to the United Kingdom at the annual gala dinner of the French Chamber of Commerce in Great Britain London, 22 October 2013
Monsieur le Président de la SNCF, Monsieur le Président de la CCFGB, Cher Arnaud, Madame la Directrice Générale, Ladies and gentlemen, It s always a pleasure to take part in the annual gala dinner of the French Chamber of Commerce in Great Britain. Not only because it is an enjoyable occasion, with the guest of honour always a highly important figure, but also because the strength of France and Britain s bilateral relationship owes a great deal to the solid partnerships between our companies in every sector particularly the energy, environmental, defence, construction and transport sectors. This year the CCFGB had a change of president, and I d once again like to thank Arnaud Vaissié who is now the powerful President of the UCIFE, the Union of French Chambers of Commerce and Industry Abroad for the exceptional job he did leading the CCFGB from 2007 to 2013. And at the same time I want to extend a warm welcome to his successor, cher Arnaud Bamberger, the Executive Chairman of Cartier, and someone we have already worked with extensively since he took office, with visits by M. Claude Bartolone, President of the National Assembly, and Mme Nicole Bricq, our Foreign Trade Minister, and a jointly-led economic and trade mission to Scotland. The UK s recovery is going well. Things are taking off again in France, too. And growth is picking up, thanks of course to the improving international situation and the fact that the Euro Area crisis is now behind us, but also because of France s resolute commitment to structural
reforms promoting competitiveness and jobs. These major reforms draw on the Gallois report s recommendations in particular: there s the competitiveness pact, greater labour market flexibility, pensions reform, the creation of the Public Investment Bank and increased export support for our SMEs. They are helping France remain an extremely attractive destination for foreign investment, whether the pessimists like it or not. This is borne out by what Arcelor Mittal recently decided. The group has just announced two lots of investment on French soil: 90 million in the Lozère department and 80 million for its Dunkirk site to develop and create new products in the wind-energy and electric and hybrid vehicle sectors. I m also thinking of Manoir Aerospace, a British subcontractor specializing in the manufacture of high-tech parts, which has just decided on a 52-million investment programme for its various sites in France between now and 2016. I d like, this evening, to convey to you a message of confidence in our country and in the strength of the economic relationship between France and the UK. Today we sell Airbuses assembled in France to both Japan and Easyjet. Our third-generation nuclear power stations have already won over the British and the Chinese. France has distinguished itself, too, in the field of innovation. You re bound to have noticed Thomson Reuters global list of innovative companies for 2013, which puts France in third place, only just behind the United States and Japan. We owe this success to the nine French companies and three French bodies listed in this Top 100, and the Chamber of Commerce can be proud to have no fewer than five among its members: L Oréal, Michelin, Saint-Gobain, Safran and Thalès! As part of my duties, I m proud to lend my support to all our companies, including, cher Guillaume Pepy, Keolis and Eurostar.
In fact, next year we ll already be celebrating the 20 th anniversary of the inauguration of the Channel Tunnel on 6 May 1994 by President François Mitterrand and Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. It s one of the finest symbols of this bilateral relationship s success. Let me quote what the French President said on that day; it expresses the full strength and promise of the relationship: Here is living proof that when Britain and France agree to work together and share their vast material and human resources, they achieve great things. That important occasion makes me all the more delighted that you re here this evening, Guillaume Pepy. You re President of the SNCF, which is a major shareholder in Eurostar and a symbol of French excellence in the rail transport sector, a source of huge economic opportunities in the UK. Indeed, this country is determined to modernize its infrastructure, and Keolis wants to be involved in this. It s a key sector in terms of increasing our market share and contributing to the ambitious target the French government has set for French foreign trade: to achieve a zero non-energy trade deficit by 2017. Rest assured: we in the UK are very good pupils, because it s here that we achieve France s main trade surplus worldwide. But we can do even more and better. The Chamber of Commerce is an essential, key player in our economic diplomacy in the UK, which President Hollande and our minister Laurent Fabius have given impetus. This evening I d like to pay tribute to the dynamism and remarkable work of its whole team. I m struck by the large number of events organized by the Chamber of Commerce every year: at least 40. I won t list all of them, but I would like to mention the new forums set up, which, six times a year, bring together experts on issues as wide-ranging as climate change and finance. The Chamber of Commerce has also created the SME and Entrepreneurs Club, and the Luxury Club, which help promote France s expertise and way of life.
But the most important event to come will be the CCFGB s first energy conference in London on 29 October this year. Indeed, in terms of both the recent history and the future of economic relations between France and Britain, the energy sector is of key importance. The UK s energy policy is at a crossroads. It must take on board all the major energy challenges confronting our world: depleted hydrocarbon resources, the need for massive investment in the replacement of electricity power stations and a necessary reduction in emissions, while seeking the best possible price for the customer. These challenges also present tremendous opportunities for our common economic development. France, for its part, can pride itself on having developed a world-class industry which has a reliable, safe supply in all the important sectors. Today it is a major player on the British market, with big groups including EDF Energy, Total, GDF-Suez, AREVA and Alstom incidentally, they re all Chamber of Commerce members. These companies are contributing to growth and employment in France and the UK. France is one of the very leading investors in UK infrastructure, which the government has made a priority. Today our relationship in the energy sector has passed a new milestone in the field of nuclear cooperation, with the construction of the first of a planned new generation of British power plants at Hinkley Point, which was announced yesterday by EDF Chairman Henri Proglio and Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change Ed Davey. This is a 16 billion investment which is going to give the British people the best energy possible at the best price, allowing them to reactivate their nuclear power industry and also create thousands of jobs in the UK and France for both major companies and SMEs.
Tonight we can be proud of this major success for French industry in the UK and for what EDF and EDF-Energy have achieved. This is the fruit of joint work by France s nuclear export team. Beyond this, renewable energy wind and tidal power is also crucially important for our companies, which are already in battle order on these new markets, as I was able to note when I recently went to Scotland with the CCFGB, and on my visit to the Channel Islands. Thirty-eight of the CAC-40 s companies are present here in the UK, but quite obviously not all French companies are big corporations. In addition to that provided by Ubifrance, crucial support is given by the CCFGB to SMEs to help them set up, develop and have an international reach, because one of the main challenges for French foreign trade is for our SMEs to have an international reach. So, the last meeting I ll mention is one which rewards innovative SMEs on both sides of the Channel. The Franco-British Business Awards, organized every year since 2000 in partnership with the British Chamber of Commerce in France, Invest in France and UK Trade & Investment, will take place in Paris and I shall be attending it. Finally, I would stress how important it is too for our companies to find out more about development opportunities which exist outside London. After the trade mission to Leeds which was organized with Arnaud Vaissié last year, Arnaud Bamberger and I recently conducted a trade mission to Scotland, organized jointly by the Chamber, the Embassy and
Edinburgh s Consulate General. I was able to introduce all the company directors in the delegation to Scotland s First Minister Alex Salmond, the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Scotland David Mundell, and also Danny Alexander, the Chief Secretary to the Treasury, who was in the same plane as us. We were able to visit the Michelin factory in Dundee and Total s headquarters in Aberdeen. Our Scottish friends need no further proof of the importance, expertise and international reach of our champion Total, but French engineering skills are recognized too in the key role Thalès is playing in the construction of the future aircraft carrier HMS Queen Elizabeth, which we were able to visit. This gala dinner is thus an opportunity for me not only to thank the CCFGB and lend encouragement to all those people who help make France dynamic and raise its economic profile in the UK, but also to propose to you an ambitious goal: to increase the number of members to 800 if possible in 2015, thereby confirming France s economic reach in the UK, but also closing the gap with the other foreign chambers of commerce in London. Thank you./.