Le Web08 - Day 2 - Eric Besson (from the French Government)

It's time to talk about different measures the French government has put in place to boost his digital plan presented a month ago.

One of the goal is to get 100% Internet broadband everywhere in France by next year. But also to push the Fibre Optics available in France to have super high speed Internet access.

Also to allow the tranformation from analog television towards digital.

What the government is doing to help start ups in France?

==> deliver high speed Internet to have the right infrastructure for content owners
==> €26 billions investment to SMEs to help them to grow and particularly the Internet start ups

What about the crisis we are facing today?

Gordon Brown and Nicolas Sarkozy have been the most pro-active politics to respond to this crisis.

Questions from the audience:

1/ How can we make the tax issue regarding start ups in France more flexible?
Shouldn't the funds be used to grow start ups towards Europe (like helping them on the language)

The tax system is quite favourable to help start ups to grow. People who pay the wealth tax (ISF) can invest in start ups and deduct their investment from the tax bills at the end of the year.

France believes the crisis is an opportunity. Because we can use this crisis to catch up with other countries like the use of English in universities. And the education will be more digital and fits more with International exposure.

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