The vice-president in charge of the economy, employment, innovation and reindustrialization for the Occitanie Region has been a business leader since July 2. Founder and director of SDTech in Alès (30), a company specializing in the micronization, analysis and custom processing of fine and ultrafine powders for industry, Jalil Benabdillah, is not a novice in politics, he who was elected to the City and the Agglomeration of Alès before letting go of his mandates to embark on the regional alongside Carole Delga (PS). The emblematic Alesian entrepreneur also handed over the presidency of Leader Occitanie, a growing business club. Two months after his appointment, Jalil Benabdillah confides in his roadmap.
LA TRIBUNE - Your delegation has been expanded compared to what it was during the previous mandate of Carole Delga, the president having added employment and reindustrialisation. Why and what is your roadmap?
JALIL BENABDILLAH - Carole Delga added employment and reindustrialization to adapt to the crisis we are going through. And these are important indicators for the inhabitants of Occitania. The number one concern is jobs. As for the word reindustrialisation, it has a precise meaning: geopolitically, it is important, because we are undergoing a crisis of scarcity and the cost of raw materials... My roadmap is therefore the preservation and creation of jobs, work in the field to find answers to business problems and confirm the ambition of the president to make Occitania "the region of solutions". And the territoriality of the Region's action because it is necessary to mesh all the economic basins and not only the metropolises.
What are the priorities and the first actions of your mandate?
We must put the iron on the revival with all the devices that the Region offers. We can first mention what is new: the anti-bankruptcy fund. It is endowed with 100 million euros. We voluntarily acted quickly after the elections by voting for this fund. A tranche of 25 million euros will be effective this fall. It targets 2,000 regional companies, companies which have lost turnover, which have taken out the PGE but have not solved their equity problems and which are over-indebted. When it is necessary to repay the PGE and others, they will have no borrowing capacity and recourse to the anti-bankruptcy fund will protect employment. This system should have a leverage effect of 500 million euros in total. The Region will provide quasi-equity to allow the assisted company to breathe and re-borrow to make investments... Overall, without making a Prévert-style inventory of all the systems, we can say that the Region has allocated colossal resources during the health crisis, alongside the State and partners such as chambers of commerce. Among the tools of aid still today, there is the regional sovereign fund of 150 million euros which will target reindustrialization, or the Occitanie Savings to finance proximity by allowing citizens to be active in a company. . There is cash available which can be invested in the local economy in a useful way.
How do you approach the issue of the challenges of digital and environmental transition?
Digitalization is a major challenge. Certain territories - but this is not the responsibility of the Region - and certain companies need to accelerate. I would remind you that we have training systems to raise employees' skills, but also diagnostic funding systems and digital transformation investments... Regarding ecological transition approaches, combining economy and ecology was a Carole Delga's campaign commitment. We have launched a call for expressions of interest for an experiment with hundreds of volunteer regional companies that would like to take a virtuous turn towards a more responsible economy. We will make a diagnosis with them and then we will look at what we can do to improve practices. Some of the 100 companies have been identified in Hérault or Gard, but of course we would like all areas to be represented.
In Aveyron, the SAM foundry in Decazeville, dedicated to the automotive industry, and the Bosch plant in Rodez are in critical situations. What does the Region do?
These are two priority files because they are territorial issues and a lot of things depend on these jobs. The Region takes care of it, of course. We are maneuvering alongside partners, in conjunction with employees and managers, and discussions are underway at the highest level. Carole Delga has already met Agnès Pannier-Runacher, the Minister Delegate in charge of Industry. However, it is too early to give any leads... Important meetings are still to come, we must let the discussions take place.
Companies in the region and throughout France are encountering major problems with the supply of electronic components. Can the regional authority help them?
I have already made a meeting on this subject. The Region wants to help at different levels: these small businesses cannot respond to orders so they risk losing markets or seeing certain markets shift over time. This will therefore contribute to deteriorating their financial situation. They are not eligible for the partial unemployment scheme and I will discuss this with the state services. We can also imagine doing engineering to support them with cash flow problems, to see if there is any sector work to be done. We are here on a national problem, and the role of the Region is to make it visible to the ministries. Carole Delga is also President of the Association of the Regions of France and she can get closer to her counterparts in the different regions to share the problem.
Companies are facing real recruitment difficulties, especially in certain sectors. How can the Region help them?
We are in the French paradox: a lot of unemployment and jobs in high tension, such as in tourism and catering. We need to discuss with the branches, sectors, partners to put things straight and discuss the attractiveness of certain professions and certain territories. The Region has set up a system of short and quick training courses on food trades and tourism. There is an HR Pass to train employees of VSEs and SMEs. We are putting resources in place to anticipate needs, but it is difficult to go further... We are going to set up around ten ETRE schools (European School for Ecological Transition, editor's note) in the region (last June, Carole Delga had announced the creation of the first in Vauvert for the start of the 2022 school year, Ed). Of course, there are also digital schools that can provide a response to the strong tension that exists in the IT developer professions, for example. I remind you that the Region has set up free transport solutions for job seekers, and assistance with childcare. We have engaged a whole battery of tools to respond to these issues.
Occitanie has a strong industry on the Toulouse side, particularly with Airbus, or even in basins such as the Alesian basin, the Gard Rhône, but not very much on the Montpellier side in particular. Could this period when we talk about sovereignty, relocation and reindustrialization be a new chance for the region?
Occitania is an industrial land! And if there are not many industries in Montpellier, the metropolis has other assets in innovation, technologies, health and biotech, CCI, etc. There is probably industrial culture to be injected into certain regional territories. With the crisis, acceptability is better, and it's time to reindustrialise. We want to strengthen the areas that are already industrialized but also equip others based on their strengths and assets, for example in food processing or recycling. We are in a region with high potential. But yes, we have to strengthen what already exists and look for new opportunities.
You are a business leader yourself. What asset does this give you in your political mission?
It is undeniably an asset. I went through an engineering school, through the world of research, and I know for example the problem of adequacy of training to the economic world. I know what it's like to start a business. I know the difficulties that the entrepreneur can encounter, it's my life! I know the partners from the economic world... My hands are dirty! That does not mean that I know everything, but I can understand the economic interlocutors. Through my experience, I can be useful to the ecosystem.
How is the life of a vice-president of the Occitanie Region, who is also a business manager, organized?
First of all, I want to clarify that these are choices, no one imposed it on me. I want to be useful to as many people as possible, with a focus on the most vulnerable. I am a contributor to a collective work in which I believe, just as I believe in collective intelligence. I gave up certain responsibilities to free up time: all my local mandates in Alès, my position as president of Leader Occitanie, my commitments to Face Gard, etc. As for my company (50 employees, editor's note), I had already organized myself when I was exercising my local mandates. My partner (Aziz Aït Amer, editor's note) and I have strengthened the management, I have recruited a deputy CEO with extensive experience and who is now my partner's right arm. I keep the strategic and financial decision. It's true that I see the employees less, but I have set up one breakfast per week with them. I do not drive and I work in the car during the journeys. Because as vice-president for the economy, I have to be present in the 13 departments of the region, I impose this responsibility on myself.
Cécile Chaigneau9 mins
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