青年創業家告別法國----中壢英文補習班 @ 金學堂英語的部落格

【聯合報／By LIZ ALDERMAN／陳世欽譯】

Young Entrepreneurs Bid Farewell to Struggles in France

Guillaume Santacruz, an aspiring French entrepreneur, brushed the rain from his sweater and headed down to a cavernous basement inside Campus London, a seven-story hive run by Google in the city’s East End , where people were hunched over laptops , working on plans to create the next Facebook or LinkedIn.

A year earlier, Mr. Santacruz, who has two degrees in finance, was living in Paris , working in a boutique finance firm. He had taken that job after his attempt to start a business in Marseille foundered under a pile of government regulations and a seemingly endless parade of taxes. The episode left him wary of starting any new projects in France. Yet he still hungered to be his own boss.

He decided that he would try again. Just not in his own country.

“A lot of people are like, ‘Why would you ever leave France?’ ” said Mr. Santacruz, 29. “I’ll tell you. France has a lot of problems. There’s a feeling of gloom that seems to be growing deeper. The economy is not going well, and if you want to get ahead or run your own business, the environment is not good.”

An exodus of entrepreneurs and young people is happening when France can ill afford it. The nation has had low-to-stagnant economic growth for five years and a climbing unemployment rate, now about 11 percent.

Some wealthy businesspeople have also been leaving. While entrepreneurs fret about the difficulties of getting a business started, those who have succeeded in doing so say that society stigmatizes financial success. The election of President François Hollande, a member of the Socialist Party who once declared, “I don’t like the rich,” did little to contradict that impression.

But this year, Mr. Hollande has put forward several proposals to make France more alluring for entrepreneurs and business, while seeking to preserve the nation’s model of social protection.

Those initiatives, however, have not stopped the outbound flow of French citizens. Articles in French newspapers have examined the implications of “les exilés.” Last month, the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Paris, which represents 800,000 businesses, said that French executives were more worried than ever that “unemployment and moroseness are pushing young people to leave” the country . And as the Pew Research Center put it last year, “no European country is becoming more dispirited and disillusioned faster than France.”

Around 1.6 million of France’s 63 million citizens live outside the country , up 60 percent from 2000, according to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Thousands are heading to Hong Kong, Mexico City, New York, Shanghai and other cities. About 50,000 French nationals live in Silicon Valley , and 350,000 are now rooted in Britain. Many say they may not return.

Diane Segalen, an executive recruiter for many of France’s biggest companies who recently moved most of her practice, Segalen & Associés, to London from Paris, says the competitiveness gap is easy to see just by reading the newspapers. “In Britain, you read about all the deals going on here,” Ms. Segalen said. “In the French papers, you read about taxes, more taxes, economic problems and the state’s involvement in everything.”

Mr. Hollande’s government is trying to re-brand itself as business-friendly, especially for start-ups. A large-scale technology incubator has opened in Paris. Initiatives have been offered to free up venture capital and encourage digital entrepreneurship.

A pledge that Mr. Hollande made in January included a “responsibility pact” — a promise to relieve businesses of some of the burden to finance France’s welfare state. In February, he announced measures to lure investors back to France, unveiling plans to stabilize corporate tax rules, simplify customs procedures for imports and exports and introduce a tax break for foreign start-ups.

These changes were welcomed by business, but many French expatriates said their country was marked by a deeper antipathy toward the wealthy than could be addressed with a few policies.

“There is this sense that ‘liberté, égalité, fraternité’ means that what’s yours should be mine,” Ms. Segalen said. “ That’s a very French state of mind. But it’s a race to the bottom.”

Axelle Lemaire, a lawmaker who represents the French population in Britain and Northern Europe in the National Assembly of France, said Anglo-Saxon- style capitalism was not the solution if it would compromise France’s social model.

In Britain, “it has been surprising to see the level of deprivation of some of my fellow citizens,” she said. “When things fail here, they can wind up without a penny in their pockets, living on the street. That’s the part of the story you don’t hear.”

At the same time, Ms. Lemaire said, France’s generous safety net could not continue unchanged without risking further economic malaise. “Socialist politicians all agree on that now.”

中譯

桑塔克魯茲是個有抱負的法國創業家。他拭去運動衫上的雨水，下到谷歌在倫敦東區經營的「倫敦園區」七層大樓的洞穴狀地下室。在這裡，人人埋首以筆電擘畫各種方案，想要創造下一個臉書或LinkedIn。

一年前，擁有兩個財務學位的桑塔克魯茲還住在巴黎，為一家精品業財務顧問公司工作。此前他嘗試在馬賽創業，卻因法規與稅目多如牛毛而失敗。這段經歷使他不願再在法國創業。然而他還是很想自己當老闆。

他決定再接再厲，只不過地點不是法國。

29歲的桑塔克魯茲說：「許多人問我為何離開法國？我會以法國問題重重回答。低迷的氣氛似乎日益深重。經濟不好。如果你想獲得成功或自行創業，整個大環境並不好。」

創業家與年輕人相繼出走對法國而言可謂雪上加霜。法國經濟已經連續五年低成長甚至停滯，失業率更是一路上升，目前約11%。

部分富商也選擇離去。創業家為開辦事業不易所苦，有幸成功者則說法國社會愛把財務上的成就汙名化。社會黨籍總統歐蘭德曾說「我不喜歡有錢人」。他的當選無助於扭轉這種印象。

然而歐蘭德今年推出多項方案，試圖提高法國對創業家與工商界的吸引力，同時保有法國的社會保護模式。

然而這一切都無法阻止法國公民的出走潮。法國媒體不斷探討「外流」的意義。代表80萬家公司商家的巴黎貿工協會上個月指出，法國企業主管比以往更擔心「失業與陰鬱迫使年輕人出走」的趨勢。丕優研究中心去年說：「在歐洲，法國陷入氣餒與幻滅比任何國家都快。」

法國人口6300萬。法國外交部統計，現約有160萬人住在海外，比2000年多出60%。數以千計的法國人選擇前往香港、墨西哥市、紐約、上海與其他城市。約5萬名法國人住在矽谷，另有35萬人在英國落腳。許多人表示可能不會返回法國。

黛安‧塞加林為許多法國最大企業尋找高層人才，最近將巴黎塞加林公司大部分業務移到倫敦。她說，只要看報就可瞭解競爭力的落差有多大。她說：「在英國，報上盡是各種進行中的交易。在法國，你看到的卻總是稅、更多的稅、各種經濟問題與政府事事介入。」

歐蘭德政府試圖建立親商的形象，尤其是對新創企業。一項大規模科技扶植計畫已在巴黎展開。政府提出多種方案，欲以活化創投資金並鼓勵數位創業。