25 Jul 2025

UK and France to focus on tech in Industrial Strategy Partnership

In a statement released on 11 July, the British and French governments committed to an Industrial Strategy Partnership, aimed at fostering collaboration in key growth sectors, including tech.

The statement was made by Chancellor Rachel Reeves, Secretary of State Jonathan Reynolds and the French Ministers Eric Lombard, Minister of Economy, Finance and Industrial and Marc Ferracci, Minister for Industry and Energy.

The Industrial Strategy Partnership, according to the UK government, ‘offers an opportunity to grow key sectors for the green and digital transition, build our economic resilience and share knowledge and best practice to drive economic growth and innovation.’ The areas committed to include:

Industrial Strategy Council Collaboration: The UK’s and France’s respective industrial strategy councils, the Industrial Strategy Advisory Council and Conseil National de l’Industrie, will engage with one another to share best practice
AI adoption in SMEs: Existing work to improve AI adoption amongst SMEs, including upskilling workers to ensure they are ready for an AI future, will be built upon.
Supply chain security: Co-operation to strengthen supply chains of critical minerals and identify strategic co-dependencies through supply chain mapping will be undertaken.

The joint statement comes alongside the announcement of over £1 Billion in French investment into the UK concluded during the Summit including significant investment from techUK members. This includes £40 million from Thales of AI-focused R&D investment as part of its CortAIx UK AI Accelerator and £35 million from Comand AI over the next five years to set up an office in the UK, in their first step to becoming a pan-European defence company. The majority of investment though appears to be nearly £900 million for upgrading Heathrow Airport.

techUK analysis

This was the first Anglo-French summit to have been held since Brexit and much was on the agenda, from the announcement of the ‘Coalition of the Willing’ for peacekeeping in Ukraine to President Macron’s speech to the UK Parliament and banquet with the King.

Given the busy schedule, we are pleased to see tech has been given such a priority and that the UK Government has adopted recommendations made by techUK in our Enabling Growth and Resilience report to increase digital and technology co-operation with our allies and support resilient, competitive growth. Doing so will both increase trade between the UK and France, but also help the UK and France better face a more uncertain global trading environment through partnership.

We are also glad to see the government has, at the first test, acted in accordance with the intentions set out in the trade and industrial strategies to prioritise tech as a key growth sector and to improve co-operation with our allies through an Industrial Strategy Partnership. The decision to establish and deepen dialogue between the French and British industrial strategy bodies is also welcome, especially given the long experience France has of designing and successfully implementing industrial strategies. The UK government has emphasised though that they have negotiated only the ‘first’ Industrial Strategy Partnership, and we look forward to seeing further Industrial Strategy Partnership negotiated with key UK partners.

More significant than this though is arguably the general fraternity on display throughout the Summit, of which this declaration is an important part. This declaration establishes that France and the UK have similar values, similar economies and similar problems that they must tackle together. This friendly understanding may well be a sign that France and Britain are fully moving on from Brexit and are looking to work more closely together in the future. Only time will tell if this renewed entente cordiale between Britain and France delivers on its potential, but it is a promising start that techUK welcomes.