This year marks the 60th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and France, as well as the Year of Culture and Tourism between China and France.
Some time ago, the author attended a special event for the 60th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China ·and France at the 5th France National Day Business Dinner held in Hangzhou. From the atmosphere of the scene, it can be clearly felt that under the promotion of friendship between the two countries, the trade between the two countries has become increasingly prosperous, and a number of leading enterprises have also been created, including air transport industry, tourism and vacation industry, beauty industry, automobile manufacturing industry, etc.
Since the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and France, France's aerospace, nuclear energy, luxury goods, rail transit, automobile manufacturing, medicine and other six core industries related enterprises are actively cooperating with China, many of which have shown vigorous vitality in the domestic market. At the event, many representatives of French enterprises made it clear that they would pay more attention to the domestic market and increase investment in the domestic market.
In fact, I personally believe that it is not enough to increase investment, and French companies should see the huge potential of the domestic market in the future, and continue to increase investment in China and even have the possibility of feeding back the France economy.
France's manufacturing industry seeks new growth points
When France President Emmanuel Macron came to power in 2017, he has been emphasizing "re-industrialization" and has always put it at the heart of policymaking. But so far, little has been done.
This is evident in the evolution of GDP, which was $2.7 trillion in France in 2009 and almost negligible in 2022, when France GDP was only $2.78 trillion. It is for this reason that Macron has tried to promote "re-industrialization" in order to increase GDP after coming to power, but the result seems to have backfired.
There has been little growth for more than a decade, and it has even stagnated, mainly due to the decline in the manufacturing sector.
Taking the automotive industry as an example, in 2007, France produced a staggering 3 million cars, while domestic car production in the same period was 8.7 million. Although domestic automobile production has far surpassed France in the same period, France's population in 2007 was only 63.8 million, while the Chinese population was as high as 1.32 billion. With a population 20.7 times that of France, the country's automobile production is only 2.9 times that of the other party. It is conceivable that the developed France automobile industry at that time also contributed a lot of GDP to the France economy.
In 2023, France produced only 1.7 million cars, just over half of 2007. The decline of the automotive industry is a microcosm of France's manufacturing industry, which accounted for just over 10% of France's GDP in 2015 and 8.8% in 2022.
The numbers don't lie, and the key to France's quest for healthy GDP growth is manufacturing. As one of the industries with a wide range of upstream and downstream industries in the manufacturing industry, automobile is undoubtedly the key point to directly improve the manufacturing industry and even GDP.
France is indeed doing this, Macron laid out the "battery valley" plan early, planning to build a Silicon Valley of the battery industry in Dunkirk, the main direction of attack is set in the power battery of new energy vehicles, but this is far from enough.
There are other options
BMW Group Chairman Philip Zipzer has already stated: "China's trends today will determine the direction of the world tomorrow."
Indeed, China's current policy environment, market environment and production environment are fertile ground for the growth of new energy vehicles, and it is also destined that the best electric vehicle technology and battery technology will appear on this land.
If France's auto industry wants to reopen the situation and stop the decline, it will inevitably be unable to avoid the option of China. Therefore, it is far from enough for the France government to choose to focus on power batteries, and it also needs to invest more resources to achieve greater cooperation.
In October last year, Leapmotor reached a strategic cooperation with Stellantis Group, the world's fourth largest car company, and Stellantis Group invested about 1.5 billion euros to acquire about 20% of the equity of Leapmotor, becoming a strategic shareholder of the latter, and obtaining two seats on the board of directors of Leapmotor. On May 14 this year, Leaprun and Stellantis jointly announced the official establishment of their joint venture "Leaprun International".
Obviously, the Stellantis Group's largesse also shows its recognition of the domestic new energy industry. But personally, I think that there is another shortcut for the Stellantis group, and that is DPCA Automobile.
In the first half of this year, DPCA made a breakthrough in the overseas market, established an international business department, enhanced the strategic position of the export business, quickly improved the system and mechanism, built an international and high-quality business team, and has achieved breakthroughs in 11 regional markets. From January to June, DPCA achieved a year-on-year increase of 32% in exports. Today's contrarian growth of exports is a change brought about by the strategic transformation direction of "Shenlong Manufacturing Global Sales" last year.
This year, DPCA is still stepping up the layout of the new energy vehicle market, making full use of the existing advantageous resources to accelerate the transformation of new energy vehicles. It is reported that there are currently three new energy products are being promoted, and the first model will be officially put into production in 2025.
This year, DPCA also held a series of activities France the official certification of the Sino-French Year of Cultural Tourism - "From the Forbidden City to the Palace of Versailles - A Tribute to the Orient", which is the farthest distance, the widest range of participation and the longest duration of the cultural and artistic exchange project for the 60th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and France.
The event started on April 1, and DPCA and the "French bosom friends" recruited by the whole network set off from the Forbidden City in Beijing, and successively passed through Qufu, Nanjing, Shanghai, Hangzhou, Jingdezhen, Wuhan, Yichang, Xiangyang, Shiyan, Xi'an, Hanzhong, Chengdu, Lanzhou, Zhangye, Jiuquan, Hami, Urumqi, Altay region, a total of 19 cities. As of May 31, the last stop, Altay, has driven more than 12,000 kilometers, basically completing the entire Chinese crossing and reaching the Sino-Kazakh border.
On June 13, the team officially started its overseas trip: tracing and paying tribute to the history of the car at the National Automobile Museum in Turin, Italy; Feel the faster, higher and stronger Olympic spirit in Lausanne, Switzerland, the "Olympic Capital"; Experience the speed and excitement of the 24 Hours of Le Mans in France; Taste the international cutting-edge fashion and trends at Paris Fashion Week; And at the Palace of Versailles, which is pure French charm, ushered in the end of this event......
The core products of Dongfeng Citroen Automobile such as the 2024 Versailles C5 X, Dongfeng Citroen Tianyi C5 AIRCROSS, Dongfeng Peugeot New 508L, Dongfeng Peugeot New 5008 and Dongfeng Peugeot 408X have experienced various road conditions and extreme environments during the journey, fully proving that they were born in China and have strong adaptability and excellent product strength.
In the near future, DPCA will also usher in its own new energy products. Born at the forefront of the global new energy vehicle market, they will also contribute to the boost of France's automotive industry and manufacturing industry in another form.