The railway industrial sector was looking for one interlocutor and three showed-up! The French Railway Industries Association (FIF) at the time had failed in attempts to capture the interest of  former Industry Minister Eric Besson in the Fillon Government, to whom it had submitted in April 2012 its strategic " Ambition 2020" blueprint on  the organisation of the railway manufacturing sector. Yet on Friday 11 January last the meeting of the Rail Sector Strategic Committee was gratified by the presence of Industry Minister Arnaud Montebourg, of Overseas Trade Minister Nicole Bricq, and of Transport Minister Frédéric Cuvillier in Valenciennes...

The rail manufacturing sector boasts all the attributes needed to attract attention from an Industry  Minister who preaches  economic patriotism and re-industrialisation. FIF Delegate-General Jean-Pierre Audoux therefore applauds what he describes "as the determination to show that the sector is taken very seriously" adding that the Minister's posture "is not a mere facade". While in Valenciennes that day, the trio of Ministers visited a  SME specialised in the manufacture of fine sheet-metal and structural sheet-metal in metallic materials with railway (but also nuclear or defence) applications, namely Group Deprecq (workforce : 160; turnover: €18 milion for both plants at Raismes and Saint-Amand-les-Eaux), whose chair person Antoinette Cousin is Vice-President of the Association of Nord-Pas-de-Calais railway industries (ARF). Hers is a successful company which epitomises an activity  directly exposed to globalisation and committed to developing the cluster-based approach. Later that day  Minister Montebourg , on arrival at the meeting of the rail-sector strategic committee in the Alstom Petit-Forêt factory, was greeted by hostesses sporting the mariners' jersey now become the emblem of his "Buy French" crusade, viewed by him as a recipe for redressing the country's trade balance. Urgent action is required , as remarked by Alstom Transport chief Henri-Poupart Lafarge, "the order books are fast drying out", and the sector needs to become more competitive.

For the government, the magic word in the rail manufacturing sector as in others is innovation. In the automotive world, for example, the gauntlet thrown-down by the Prime Minister is the launch of a car running on 2 litres per 100km by 2020.

The situation is similar in the rail sector, where innovation can make all the difference in the face of competition from Chinese rivals including some newcomers who already outperform European manufacturers. In terms of sector organisation, we know that there is a chronic shortage of medium-size entreprises (MSEs) in France. It simply is not easy to bridge the gap between mega-players like Alstom or Bombardier, and the SME world where consolidation is often impeded by family ownership issues. Hence the Government's decision to pin its faith in the momentum  generated by clusters. Through this policy , coupled with its expected endorsement of the FIF's action blueprint, the Government is clearly committed to supporting sector structuring , particularly via the launch of a modernisation fund for railway equipment manufacturers. Simultaneously, expressions of interest  have been invited by the government, propping this  with a € 40 million package designed "to support research & development and the launch of highly-innovative projects". In exchange, it sets a roadmap for industry to follow. One such innovation-driven landmark project is the "TGV of tomorrow"  demanded by Minister Montebourg, for whom leading from the front is seen as the only valid strategy to avoid elimination from the race.