AFDEL and Syntec Numérique welcome the fact that the Pacte National pour la Croissance et l’Emploi (National Growth and Employment Pact) incorporates key provisions of the Gallois report.
Indeed, the trade associations share Louis Gallois’s observation that industry has fallen behind, and that companies need to restore their margins if French industry is to return to investment and innovation.
In this respect, they would like to point out that digital technology is today one of the essential vectors for the competitiveness of other industries. As the latest OECD study on the contribution of Internet companies to global growth shows, the vitality of digital companies stems from their decisive contribution to the efficiency gains of companies in other sectors. In France, value added in the digital sector has grown three times faster than in other sectors. The trade associations are therefore calling for the adoption of a truly national digital strategy.
They will be watching closely to see that the commitments and reforms announced are actually implemented, and they intend to be involved, in line with the role that Louis Gallois would like to see assigned to professional federations in structuring sectors.
However, the trade associations regret that the Gallois report’s proposal to reduce employer and employee charges from 1 to 3.5 times the SMIC was not adopted in its entirety
. Given that two-thirds of employees in the digital sector are managers, limiting the reduction in labor costs to 2.5 SMIC will have only a limited effect on their companies. However, the move upmarket and upmarket in French production will require more high value-added skill profiles.
The industry associations welcome the announcement of the stability of five tax measures over the five-year period (decision no. 26), including the Research Tax Credit (CIR) and the Young Innovative Company (JEI) status, which are essential for the development and growth of the digital and innovative ecosystem. They also hope that the commitment made to simplify administrative and tax law, as well as to control payment deadlines, will rapidly come to fruition.
