Photo : D.R.
The CCI Centre International is one of the latest born entities (March 2008) on the map of common Chamber services. But it intends to catch up quickly. The Regional CCI of Le Centre, its mother body, signed a partnership convention with Ubifrance(1) during the first Forum Odyssée focusing on international activities, held in Orléans on 27 November.
For the next three years, the Regional CCI, Ubifrance, the State and the Regional Council will join forces to identify “120 new companies committed to sustainable international dealings each year. […] Our work (carried out upstream, editorial note) is guided by a joint desire to strengthen the readability and efficiency of the public system offering support to export,” points out Paulette Picard, President of the Regional CCI since April 2008. Renewing the procedure was more than necessary in the Le Centre region, where accompaniment towards export is carried out by the Regional Council via the Centréco agency, and by the Chamber network via the CCI Centre International. For this reason, it is not obvious whom an SME should address when it needs help. “Along with the Regional Council, we are drawing up a document aimed at companies, in order to light their way,” says the new Managing Director of the Regional CCI, Xavier Dufour. “And so we must redefine the missions of each.” Not an easy task, as Centréco has established a solid departmental network since 1994.
However, the two main actors in the procedure, Paulette Picard and Marie-Madeleine Mialot, the energetic Vice-President of the Regional Council, show a “desire to join forces”. “This new step is the occasion to develop a partnership we have already embarked on […]. At times, our organisations seem a little fractured,” admits Marie-Madeleine Mialot. On top of its discussions with the egional Council, the Regional CCI is continuing the development of its international service, “one of the three top priorities” of the network, according to Xavier Dufour. “We intend to create a stream dynamic, via business clubs,” indicates Béatrice Guérin-Coutansais, Manager of CCI Centre International.
Automobiles, cosmetics, viticulture, but also the environment, medicine and
aeronautics, are the prime sectors targeted. “Contract signings, to be defined at
the start of the mandate (of the Chamber, editorial note), can take place with
other regions. When we think in terms of streams, as is the case of Ubifrance and ourselves, inter-regionalism can prove relevant,” considers Paulette Picard.
By coincidence, on the same day as the signing, French President Nicolas Sarkozy spoke in favour of voluntary approchements between regions, at the annual congress of the Association of French Mayors.
(1) Ubifrance has signed conventions with almost all of the French Regional CCIs. The signing in Orléans was the last carried out in 2008.
Export in Le Centre
Despite its number ten position in the French ranking of export regions (16 billion euros), “the situation is not so bad” in Le Centre, according to Catherine Gardavaud, Regional Director for Foreign Trade. The territory has a “slight trade surplus of 880 million euros, moving upwards when compared with the first nine months of 2007” and is ranked 2nd for the export of consumer goods, its main speciality (48% of exports and 35% of imports). A survey carried out by the CCIs of Le Centre identified 1,425 exporters in 2008 (+397 compared with 2007). One out of three is found in Le Loiret region and over half work in the industrial sector (1). “The chemical industry is the undeniable regional leader in industrial export,” states the report. However, providers of aid to SMEs, now united on the theme of export, have plenty of work ahead of them. For whilst “94% of exporting establishments have fewer than 250 employees, half of the regional export turnover is derived from the remaining 6% which are large companies.” Furthermore, new exporters remain rare: “93% of the regional export business figure is carried out by companies, 60% of which have been exporting for over ten years.” As far as destinations go, the EU remains in top position (70%), followed by Asia and the United States.
(1) Le Centre is the leading French region for the production of medication, and the second region for cosmetics.
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