France, Britain vow to bolster digital economy

French Economy Minister Emmanuel Macron and visiting British Chancellor George Osborne on Monday pledged to boost the digital economy in the European Union in a bid to further promote growth and support recovery.

Macron and Osborne unveiled the creation of a new joint UK-France data taskforce "to unlock up to 60 billion euros (66.61 billion U. S. dollars) of untapped economic growth across the European Union."

The taskforce aims at reinforcing the Britian-France partnership on open data, improving small and medium-seized firms' use of data sciences to develop new services and face competition in addition to provide greater consumer control of data and improved data portability.

"France and the UK are at the forefront of the digital economy. We need to join forces to unleash its potential by setting up a fair and balanced framework which benefits innovators, companies and consumers," Macron said.

Osborne said the taskforce would "lead the way in unlocking the significant economic benefits offered by the digital economy and consider ways to accelerate growth in this flourishing sector." Endit