Cisco will invest $100 Million in French businesses as well as commit to training 200,000 professionals in France, the French Government announced in a statement this week. The news will likely become more concrete in the coming months – the announcement made on behalf of Prime Minister Manuel Valls contained no deadline or start date for said action.
The announcement comes as France continues to work to reshape its image as an unfriendly business environment – France’s Economic Minister welcomed hundreds at the Economic Ministry’s office, also home of the FrenchTech initiative, as he said that the French Government, while it won’t lead the change, will follow in its entrepreneurs’ footsteps, and be as bold (“oser”) as its citizens.
Earlier this year at CES 2015, CEO John Chambers said the following of France:
“They are in tough economic times but their leadership understands they need to move fast and I’d not be surprised to see them digitize quickly”
It looks as if this move has been in the works in recent months, although Economic Minister Emmanuel Macron’s visit to CES may have cemented the deal. The next steps will be to see how that talk converts to action.