French companies are appealing to some of the country’s expats to return home.
The keenest firms are start-up ones needing talented staff with international experience.
Calling their campaign “Come Back, Leon” after a 1980s TV ad, they’ve added a catchphrase “We are innovating at home!” to lure high-flyers back again.
The scheme has a budget of "several hundreds of thousands of euros", according to Frederic Mazzella, who started the successful car-sharing website BlaBla Car. It is funded by the members as well as the state's La French Tech initiative, and even offers free repatriation assistance and advice.
Roadshows are planned for New York, San Francisco and London. Out of an estimated 2 million French expats, about half are believed to have the skills sought. Silicon Valley alone employs some 40,000 French tekkies.
The project members believe the start-up sector will need to fill 3,000 jobs this year alone.
Paris claims to be the start-up capital of Europe and the country is home to a large number of the fastest growing tech firms in the Deloitte top 500 index.
France does have high tax rates but the tax structure also encourages research and development spending.
