Podcast : The new challenges for french industry

Industry has come back into fashion following the recent economic crisis. After the financial downturn, industry has come to symbolise a return to reality. The advantage of industrial products is that they can be transported and exported. An industrial revival would help our balance of trade, create jobs and subsequently increase wealth. However, this desire to make France competitive is wishful thinking unless we also tackle numerous other issues. These include controlling ever increasingly costs ; recognising that technical skills and innovation have been mastered by emerging nations ; realising the need to revamp industrial policy, and to balance the relationship between shareholders and other people or bodies who are actively involved, and so on. At first sight, France appears to have serious disadvantages, but the book 'L'industrie est une aventure !' explains that the country has no shortage of resources, and that in every sector competent people, who are ready to take on this task, have been successful. Is it not possible to get industry on the move by drawing on our strengths rather than criticising our weaknesses ?