France markets its interventionist free market
As the ink was drying Monday on a $65.5 billion merger deal promoted by the French government between Sanofi-Synthélabo and Aventis, the prime minister, Jean-Pierre Raffarin, took to the podium at his residence, where he had just met with a group of international businessmen.
Launching into a discussion of French competitiveness, Raffarin explained that France had become an exciting destination for foreign investment.
France, he said, was only misunderstood – so much so that the government was planning to begin an advertising campaign at the end of May to attract more foreign investors to the home of Bordeaux wine and high-speed trains. “France has changed,” was the central message of a nine-page PowerPoint presentation on the advertising strategy.
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