$2bn boost for Franco-German projects
French president Jacques Chirac will on Tuesday seek to shore up his political legacy with the reinvigoration of Franco-German industrial policy spearheaded by the launch of a €1.7bn ($2.1bn, £1.2bn) series of innovative grand projets – including the creation of a multimedia search engine to rival Google.

Other projects include Neoval, an advanced light train; Biohub, the production of plastics from starch; Homes, the generation of electricity in households; and TV MSL, high-quality television broadcast over mobile phones.

Beneficiaries of French state hand-outs totalling €236m in the initial phase include France Telecom and Alcatel, but also German groups such as Siemens. The companies will have to match the state funding which will be in the form of grants or loans on the Airbus model.
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