Jacques Attali wears many hats (bio in french):
- professor in top French political and engineering schools,
- economical, political and novel writer (over 40 books in 20 languages),
- co-founder of Action Against Hunger (1980), a non-for-profit organization dedicated to saving the lives of malnourished children,
- launched the EUREKA (1984) pan-European research program on new technologies, to which we owe the Mp3 format and the HDTV standard,
- political State adviser and honoris adviser of President François Mitterrand from 1981 to 1991,
- founder of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (1991), an investment bank that helps build market economies and democracies in countries from central Europe to central Asia,
- founder of Planet Finance (1997), an NGO that aims to alleviate poverty worldwide through the development of microfinance,
- advised the Secretary General of the United Nations on nuclear proliferation,
- motivated the reform for harmonization of European graduate and post-graduate studies.
To name a few. And he’s just over 60 now. His education could be summarized with: valedictorian of X (best engineering school in France), a post-grad from “Les Mines” (other top engineering school), a post-grad from “Science-Po”, the best political science school, and finally a post-grad from the ENA, an elite French school instructing future senior officials and CEOs. 3 of those colleges are amongst the top 5 to 10 worldwide in their categories.
Enough with the introduction, now to the core of the subject: last August, the French President Nicolas Sarkozy and his Prime Minister sent Attali an engagement letter (fr) asking him to form a commission of experts to study the conditions of liberation of the French growth. His mission was to come up with proposals on various subjects, including research, technology, education, free competition, productivity, reform of the administration,…
The commission came up with 314 proposals, and Sarkozy approved and adheres to almost 310 of them. The Financial Times has a good review, as well as the Economist.
Here are some of the 314 proposals that make a lot of sense to me:
- Small Business Service: a unique lightweight administration for taxes,
advice, administration, employment (…) for companies of less than 20
employees (which account for 95% of economic growth), - Have every single French citizen connected to internet in 3 years by cable, DSL or WiMax,
- Create 10 research and college hubs in France, gathering private business and engineering schools, colleges, research labs and tech companies, and attract foreign researchers,
- Ease of businesses implementations in the communes to increase pricing competition and support buying power,
- Allow each worker to decide when he wants to retire and allow him to combine his pension with a working activity if he wishes to continue working,
- Enforce something that would be equivalent to the affirmative action for education, allowing a greater diversity in college,
- Facilitate the visa processes to allow foreign workers to easily access various French sectors where manpower is needed (construction, catering, health care services, …),
- Decrease the employer charges and taxes on salaries. In France, when an employer pays an employee 1EUR, it really costs him 1.8EUR. The highest rate in Europe …
- The facilitation of the working contract (creating and breaking it),
- Diminish (abolish ?) the old regulations and rules for a few industries that limit any innovation and free competition. This can sound marginal, but the sum of smalls makes the whole.
The plan is bold, and now the only hope is that the president sticks to it and has it approved by the congress.
This plan, to me, summarizes all the actions that France needs to take to start its growth engine again. France is a beautiful country with an amazing educational and business potential - some of the best schools in the world are in France, as well as some of the biggest and most efficient companies.
But right now, France is broken down, and stuck in old paradigms. We need a change.
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I would add that the purpose of these reforms is to reach full-employment by 2012 (I’m not sure, but I think so), based on the British or Danish examples. Can you actually believe that?
Let me just give you some of the reasons why France is stuck right now and why I believe this will not happen because French hate change:
-We are talking about France, the country with the almighty worker unions that can paralyze the country in the less than a week. The country where people don’t want to work. Only 8% of employees are in an union, but they have enough power to launch a nationwide strike (remember what happenened a couple of months ago).
-French people don’t work enough: 35 hours a week. It’s the lowest in Europe and probably in the world!
-French people do not accept change! As soon as law proposal to reform contracts, working time or social benefits you will have huge strikes and demonstrations (remember 1995, 2007?).
The problem is much more about mentatlity rather than economical reforms (that we also need of course). That’s why 2012 seems a bit too soon for me, only the next generation will accept those changes. But won’t it be too late?
@Miki: I get your point, I know France and I know how we can react sometimes. However, I feel we are on the verge of massive changes. The road is long, the president must be brave and prepared to face unsatisfaction, but the reforms are needed now, as you say.
However, I would respond to you saying that you’re a bit too negative about the potential of change. Example:
- You speak about “the almighty worker unions that can paralyze the country”: yesterday, we got an example of what the “minimum service” reforms would be, and it worked ! The aim is to break the strike movements, minimize their importance. And we’ll get there soon (few years).
- You say “French people don’t work enough”: i’ll bet you anything that before Sarkozy finishes his first term, the 35h are dead and buried.
- Change is not accepted and reforms will lead to huge strikes and demonstrations ? You are right. Doesn’t mean the government won’t go through. In 2007, 500,000 blocked the entire country to fight for their early (50 to 55) retirement, but 65% to 75% of the rest of the people agreed with the reform. And it will be voted and accepted.
I agree that French mentality is a real bridle for change, and we have the tools (strikes, mainly) to reject the reforms that “erode” our benefits. In more liberal economies as in the US, the concept is more “swim or sink” (”marche ou creve”) whereas in France, it’s “swim or strike” …
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