French civil servants are backing the use of political input into the country’s automotive sector in the north-east of the country as a way of ensuring future competitiveness and replacing employment lost when the area’s mining industry was rationalised.
Addressing delegates at last week’s Nord France Invest conference titled: “The Lille region, an engine of the European automotive industry,” Nord-Pas-de-Calais general secretary, regional affairs, Laurent Hottiaux, referred several times to input from Paris and local government to reinforce the area’s automotive attraction.
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“In Nord-Pas-de-Calais, we have been together with automotive,” Hottiaux told just-auto on the sidelines of the conference in Lille. “There is a role for the State.
“The automotive industry has contributed to replacing some of the jobs lost in the mines – a lot of reconversion has been done through the automotive sector.”
Hottiaux earlier stressed the French State was supporting the region’s automotive industry as “a priority,” with Economic Redevelopment Minister, Arnaud Montebourg, putting forward the country’s ‘Automotive Plan’ to back investment and the development of future vehicles.
“We have tools like the Public Investment Bank,” said Hottiaux. “These measures are coming as a complement to support competitiveness and employment. “Seventy-five [regional] companies have benefited from strategic and operational advice.”
The Nord-Pas-de-Calais general secretary also highlighted the importance of organisations such as I-Trans – whose aims are French-government backed – as part of a series of competitive clusters drives.
“I would like to underline the very important role played by the I-Trans cluster,” said Hottiaux. “Stakeholders of industry like SMEs…must use the cluster more.
“The economies of the region must use these clusters better – that is what the government wants – to direct these companies towards this dimension. The economic context requires us to define audacious projects.”
I-Trans director, Paul Terrien, earlier told a media briefing at the organisation’s headquarters in Valenciennes, there were several key automotive areas his cluster was evaluating, namely; energy consumption, environmental impact, performance reliability and design.
