2023-11-21 05:21:33
Margaux Fodéré edited by Sylvain Allemand / Photo credit: MATHIEU THOMASSET / HANS LUCAS / HANS LUCAS VIA AFP
modified to
8.36am, 21 November 2023
Balancing the French trade balance. For 20 years, France has imported more than it exports. An observation serving as a black spot in the French economy which is lagging behind its European neighbors. Small and medium-sized businesses in France export four times less than their German counterparts and 25 times less than Italians. To redress the situation, the government launched an export plan at the end of the summer. In addition to this plan, Emmanuel Macron receives around a hundred SMEs which already export and which have the potential to grow.
Faced with the trade deficit, French SMEs are asking for help from the State. Support which is essential for Olivier Vincent, executive director in charge of export at BPI France. “The smaller the company, the more complicated it is to sustainably engage in exports, and vice versa,” he explains to Europe 1. Difficulties linked to the lack of support faced by small and medium enterprises.
Facilitate procedures
For French SMEs, going international can be like a crossroads if it is not well planned. To cross borders, it must hire, but also surround itself with the right suppliers and find funds. Tedious operations, despite the support of regional chambers of commerce and industry.
“We already make 40% of our turnover from exports but we still face recruitment difficulties, export aid is not centralized, there is no appetite from financial institutions to help us. In France we do not have the German ecosystem in which there is an industrial fabric and support hunted in packs”, testifies Amaury Rosset, head of an SME in cybersecurity and invited to the Elysium. To help SMEs penetrate a foreign market, the President of the Republic should announce the launch of a one-stop shop to facilitate procedures.
Add visibility
If SMEs struggle to export, it is also because they lack visibility. For Samuel Sancerni, director of a medical imaging company, also invited to the Élysée, SMEs must be better represented in delegations abroad. “When the President of the Republic goes abroad, it is the influence of France that appears. Leaving alongside a Sanofi or even departing from an Airbus is one of the things that is important, being able to say we are here, we are real companies,” he testifies.
During his official trip to Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, Emmanuel Macron was accompanied by a large majority of managers of large French companies.
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