FRANCE TO BOOST RESEARCH FUNDS FOR STATE INDUSTRY
The French government will take decisions
shortly to boost the funds available for technological research
by state industry, Prime Minister Jacques Chirac said.
    Speaking to a meeting of the National Association for
Technical Research, Chirac said the government had not ruled
out raising the capital of some state groups to make more money
available for their research programs.
    "We will take decisions on this shortly -- and they will be
positive," he said in a departure from a prepared text. He gave
no details and Industry Ministry officials had no immediate
comment.
    Warning that high technology exports were rapidly losing
world market share, Chirac urged private sector industry to
step up its research efforts.
    Private sector research and development spending, at 1.3
pct of Gross Domestic Product, was below the 1.8 to 1.9 pct of
GDP spent in the U.S., West Germany and Japan, he said.
    France awarded only 12,000 registered patents in 1986,
compared with 20,000 in Britain, 30,000 in West Germany, 60,000
in the U.S. And more than 200,000 in Japan, he said. In the
U.S. Market, France was awarded 2,000 patents last year,
against 6,000 awarded to German and 11,000 to Japanese firms.
 REUTER
