The interview with Agnès Pannier-Runacher, Minister Delegate in charge of Industry: "Made in France is not just a slogan"
FiguresLSA - Large exhibition of the manufactured in France at the Élysée, Summit Choose France ... In recent days, Made in France has been honored.Why these events?
Agnès Pannier -Runacher - To paraphrase a famous formula, "France is back!».The health crisis has reinforced the intuition of the President of the Republic that industrial reconquest is a priority.Not only on the economic level but also on the social level, because industrial jobs are better paid and offer real careers to people who do not have an important academic background.This industrial reconquest is also a response to the problem of the territorial fracture that our country is experiencing.Indeed, between 2000 and 2016, France lost a million industrial jobs, mainly in rural and peripheral territories: when a municipality loses a factory, these are services that fold, shops that close ... or a classfrom the school that is deleted.
What about this reconquest today?
A. P.-R. - From his election, Emmanuel Macron wanted to relaunch the industry, first by creating a competitiveness shock at the tax level but also administrative with the simplification measures brought, in particular, by the pact law and the law of acceleration and Simplification of public action (ASAP) last December. As of 2018, we launched Territoires d'Industrie, to locally accelerate industrial development. Since then, this program has supported 900 companies. By adding the other devices of the France Recue Plan, more than 10,000 manufacturers were supported. Knowing that the country has 33,000 industrial companies with more than five employees, it is therefore almost one in three companies that was supported. This investment does not know any precedent: since the launch, in September, of France revived, nearly 40 billion euros have already been engaged. In industry, more than 500 relocation projects were supported for 2.4 billion euros in investments and more than 40,000 comforted or created jobs.
What are the companies supported?
A. P.-R. - Some national calls for projects were targeting critical sectors such as health, food, electronics, 5G or nuclear. But in the context of industry territories, we were able to support companies from all sectors, especially in textiles or metallurgy. All these investments have two main consequences. First, they made it possible to bring out champions hidden under the radar of public decision -makers, often working on niche but strong export markets. Then, they created pride around these companies, which is, in my eyes, essential because growth is built on confidence. In addition, these investments were made before and during the health crisis. These state boost allowed companies to take the risk of embarking on new projects despite the uncertain context. However, it is during the crises that we must invest: we best anticipate the exit of the crisis and we distance our competitors.
The health crisis has also increased consumer interest in Madein France.What do you think ?
A. P.-R.- This is a societal trend for several years that goes hand in hand with the development of the social and responsible economy.If, before the first confinement, consumers were already interested in ecology, the crisis has strengthened the desire to be united with local businesses and French jobs.This is an important movement, because the "manufactured in France" faces a price problem, and the supplement that consumers can or wish to pay is modest.
How to support this trend?
A. P.-R. - All actors have a role to play. For politicians, it is a question of improving the competitiveness of the "France site" so that companies can have more competitive prices. A French product can offer better quality of service, a shorter circuit ... It is these aspects that must be valued so that consumers appropriate them. Made in France is not just a slogan. The approach must be general, and it is virtuous: distributors earn money by distributing accessible and sustainable French products, manufacturers and producers earn the margin to continue to invest, this creates employment in the territories, And the state is found there via taxes and social charges. It remains to be seen how ready to pay to be sure not to miss essential products, such as masks, hydroalcoolic frost or even pasta or eggs, which experienced tensions during the first confinement. This period has also highlighted the extreme agility of our manufacturers who have been able to respond quickly to demand. But the crisis has shown that the risk of rupture is real: it was a collective shock and, even, an injury of pride. While France had turned to an economic model mainly focused on advanced services and innovation, we realized that production is a necessity to resist an external incident. Making in France is insurance for our supplies.
What are the brakes on the redevelopment of the tricolor industry?
A. P.-R. - In the long term, this is the question of competitiveness on which we have been working for four years. In the short term, the deadlines and the price of supplies and the recruitment difficulties can weigh on revival. For this last point, the government offers a massive investment in vocational training with a system allowing companies to create their training centers. The low attractiveness of the industrial world is an obstacle: while in Germany, these professions and learning are very valued, in France, it is long studies that are seen as sectors of excellence. In addition, few young people have around them who work in the industry. These professions are unknown when they often offer better working conditions and wages than in service trades. We have to rebuild these professions in colleges, refine the orientation of young people, open scientific careers to women. You have to recreate desire and excellence for these professions. As for supplies, some entrepreneurs committed and precursors recreate sectors, redeploy ancestral know-how by modernizing them ... This is the case in textiles where we see the linen sector reborn with the reopening of spinning in the tops -de-France, where we had to go and find the former employees, sometimes retired, to train new employees. Industry is not just technology and innovation, it is also beautiful human stories.
What is the weight of Made in France in the consumption of French?
A. P.-R.- The weight of products manufactured in France in purchases of manufactured products reaches 36 %, with a significant share of agrifood products.We are therefore far from Germany, where this proportion reaches 50 %.But it would be enough to move the consumption by a few points so that everyone wins.This is one of our issues.
Could labels and other Made in France certifications contribute to it?
A. P.-R.- There is a large palette of mentions around "manufactured in France" ... with sometimes the temptation of "francization", with color codes or allegations giving the feeling that the product is made in France while it is notnothing.This is a subject on which we work with the DGCCRF and the customs management.But consumers also become actors in this area, looking for more information on their products.They must be helped to decode these signals by informing them on labeling, the different labels ...
Do you think you should simplify or harmonize these labels?
A. P.-R.- The rules of international trade and the European Union prohibit a state from giving, with exceptions, the origin of the products.Likewise, the use of the tricolor flag is complex to regulate.But producers and private partner actors can work in the clarification of labels.Since March 2020, I have asked the National Consumer Council to move forward on a common methodology to enhance products of origin and French manufacturing.The result of his work should soon be rendered.Harmonization would dissipate misunderstandings around "manufactured in France" and fight against the temptation to "francize" products.
What role could distributors play?
A. P.-R.- First do store pedagogy and increase the visibility of French products.Admittedly, the price remains, for certain types of products, a brake.But we could imagine collections highlighting the "manufactured in France" and also playing on the theme of eco -responsibility, because our environmental and social standards are stronger than in most other countries.It would also be necessary to make French Days a wider event and, why not, launching a Blue Friday, which would highlight the products made in our factories instead of Black Friday.The industry weighs only 12 % of our economy, but it is its spine: it is she who makes the whole country hold around it.
Interview by Véronique Yvernault
France Relance, le plan pour raviver l’industrie françaiseEn septembre 2020, Jean Castex présentait France Relance, feuille de route pour la refondation économique, sociale et écologique du pays née après une concertation visant à tirer les enseignements de la crise sanitaire. Objectif : bâtir la France de 2030. Le gouvernement et l’Europe ont dégagé 100 milliards d’euros, dont 40 alloués aux investissements et à la transformation des entreprises, autour de quatre axes : décarboner, relocaliser, moderniser et innover. Déjà, 30 milliards ont été investis, notamment pour soutenir 500 projets de relocalisation.Son parcoursÀ 47 ans, Agnès Pannier-Runachera déjà un CV bien rempli. Diplômée de HEC en 1995 et ancienne élève de Science Po Paris et de l’ENA, elle débute à l’Inspection des finances, avant de devenir directrice de cabinet du directeur général de l’Assistance publique – Hôpitaux de Paris. En 2006, elle rejoint la Caisse des dépôts et consignations (CDC), comme directrice adjointe chargée de la stratégie et des finances, où elle participe à la mise en place du Fonds stratégique d’investissement, dont elle est nommée directrice exécutive en 2009. Après un passage à la tête de la division R & D de Faurecia, elle retourne à la CDC avant de rejoindre En Marche ! en 2016. En 2018, elle est nommée secrétaire d’État auprès du ministre de l’Économie et des Finances, puis, en juillet 2020, ministre déléguée chargée de l’Industrie.Les savoir-faire français à l’ÉlyséePour la deuxième année, les produits tricolores se sont invités début juillet au palais de l’Élysée, à l’occasion de La Grande Exposition du Fabriqué en France. Pour cet événement visant à valoriser les savoir-faire tricolores, 126 objets ont été mis à l’honneur, représentatifs des différents départements et territoires français et sélectionnés par un jury d’experts du made in France parmi 2 325 dossiers. On y trouve aussi bien des jouets que des produits alimentaires, du textile, des cosmétiques mais aussi un avion de tourisme et même des composants de rails de chemin de fer. Était aussi exposé un container de produits de la French Fab, marque collective du made in France lancée en 2017 par Bruno Le Maire, qui sillonnera cet été les stations balnéaires françaises lors de la tournée le Big Tour, organisée par Bpifrance. Le made in France à l’assaut des plages…
