Written for Ambassador Philippe Etienne
Dear friends,
It’s wonderful to see such a dynamic group of leaders and innovators all in one place.
As you may know, I took on my role as France’s new ambassador to the United States in June. As I become better acquainted with New York, I am thrilled to discover the level of entrepreneurial energy that is present among French companies here and to see the ties they are forging with their American counterparts.
I am also thrilled to see French entrepreneurs and talent working hand in hand to share ideas, networking opportunities, best practices, and advice on how to position themselves in the fast-paced, cutting-edge, and truly global business environment that’s on this side of the Atlantic.
At both the national and international level, the Macron administration is taking bold steps to create a favorable context for trade and investment between France and the United States, its second-largest trading partner. It has reformed the work code, making it easier for multinationals to do business in France, and it projects to lower its corporate business tax; it is making the bureaucratic process for foreign start-ups much easier; and it has one of the most generous tax credit systems on Research & Development in Europe. Our president is a tireless defender of the merits of open trade in his negotiations with other world leaders, at a time when there has been a resurgence of protectionism on the global scene.
Nevertheless, it is among entrepreneurs and business leaders such as you that some of the most exciting things are happening. It is the startup teams among you tonight who are finding innovative uses for technology or developing new ones that are helping people live better in the modern age. It is you who are finding ways to market these technologies and raise funds in a new business environment, and learning how to pitch to venture capital investors in English. It is you who are contributing to the many French tech success stories we are hearing about today and the emergence of its first ‘unicorns’. For example, the New York-based French-founded cloud monitoring software provider Datadog just had its IPO at the Nasdaq a few days ago, in which it was valued at more than 7 billion dollars.
You are proving there is such a thing as an excellence (and perhaps a modesty) bien à la Française every day. You have turned New York City into a sort of “silicone alley” for French tech sector start-ups, since there are more French start-ups here than from any other foreign country.
At the macro-level, all this hard work and innovation is contributing to a broader positive trend. The embassy’s economic department just published the latest figures and I am happy to report that French companies are responsible for creating the second-highest number of jobs by foreign companies (56,700) in New York. At the national level, in 2018 the trade in goods and services between France and the United States reached $129 billion, up 7% from 2017. At the same time, French and American companies invested over $400 billion in each other’s economies, supporting over 1.2 million jobs.
And so, in closing, let me say that I am proud to be in the presence of such a group of “trailblazers,” as our American friends put it so well. It also inspires me to see that members of the French business community are collaborating, that they are holding a hand out to other entrepreneurs who want to discover the possibilities on these shores, and that they are making connections with American firms that want to take advantage of France’s new fast-track Visas and preferential tax breaks for foreign start-ups.
You are making sure that the transatlantic relationship stays strong, vital, and mutually beneficial.
Thank you.
