President
Emmanuel Macron has “completely changed” France’s image, telecoms billionaire
Xavier Niel said Wednesday, crediting the youthful, pro-business politician
with attracting an influx of tech talent.
“He has
given France a pro-startup, pro-entrepreneur image abroad that we did not
really have before,” said Niel, who bankrolled a giant startup incubator on the
banks of the Seine river in Paris that opened a month after Macron’s election
last year.
Speaking to
a group of foreign correspondents at Station F — the world’s biggest incubator
which is nourishing 1,000 startups — Niel praised Macron’s reform of the labour
code and of wealth and investment taxes.
But his most
important achievement to date has been to change France’s image as being a
place that is unfriendly to business, said 50-year-old Niel, a serial
entrepreneur nicknamed the “French Steve Jobs”.
“France has
not changed… What really changed is the fact of having a young, dynamic
president, who is not from any political party,” he said.
On
Wednesday, Macron took his pledge of a French renaissance to the world’s
business elite gathered in the Swiss resort of Davos.
“France is
back at the core of Europe,” said the 40-year-old former investment banker, who
has been hailed as a potential saviour of a liberal post-war order under threat
from Donald Trump’s America and Britain’s decision to leave the EU.
Trump,
Brexit boost
Niel,
vice-president of Iliad which owns France’s second-biggest mobile phone
operator, said Trump’s nativist policies and climate change denialism had
contributed to France’s growing appeal as a place to start a business.
“England
maybe does not appear very stable under Theresa May, Germany doesn’t maybe seem
much fun with a leader who is starting to get on in years and the United States
under Donald Trump doesn’t seem very welcoming to strangers,” he said. “In the
midst of all that, we’re doing quite nicely.”
Station F
manager Roxanne Varza said the incubator, which Niel paid for with 250 million
euros of his own money, received more applications from US and UK start-ups
last year than any other country.
Niel singled
out Macron’s introduction of a flat tax rate of 30 percent on capital gains and
dividends as one of the most significant reforms for companies looking to
invest in new technology companies.
But much of
what is drawing tech firms to Paris predates Macron.
It was
Macron’s predecessor Francois Hollande who set up new visas for digital
entrepreneurs.
In its 2017
State of European Tech report the investment firm Atomico noted that Britain
remained the biggest recipient of venture capital funding at $5.4 billion (4.4
billion euros) — more than double that of France.
But it was
France that closed the most deals.
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