The international film festival has chosen its president with the movie director Luc Besson. The other film festival in Cannes, the international advertising film, has also chosen the presidents of its jury. For the 47th Lions that will take place at the palais des festivals in Cannes from June 19th to 24th 2000, three presidents have been nominated. For films and posters, the main category, a highest level creative person has been chosen.

The 2000 assessment of CAD (French Riviera Development) proves the dynamism of the high tech French Riviera with 49 establishment of companies, expansions and 2 280 job creations.

The two French companies and Air Littoral, which are a part of the air pole SAirGroup, will know their fate this afternoon during the general assembly of the Swiss holding company.

The direction team of the festival de Cannes is in turmoil. Although the succession of president Viot should happen without any problems after the Festival 2000, as Gilles Jacob, the general delegate should take the presidency, it is not the case for the general delegate position. This is still a strategic position : the general delegate of the Festival is in charge of selecting movies. To takeover Gilles Jacob, a successor seemed designated.

Les actionnaires du groupe suisse lâchent les deux compagnies françaises avec deux mois de trésorerie. En France, de source syndicale, 2.700 emplois seraient supprimés d'ici la mi-juin.

The Bernard Chevry Editions company (BC Editions) which was in bankruptcy filling has been bought out by the Textuel company, for an amount which would be up to 10 million francs. Bernard Chevry is the father of great communication congresses in Cannes (Midem, then the MIP). He created the Midem Organisation company, which was sold out to the Reed group in the end of the eighties. Then, Bernard Chevry has launched himself in the publishing industry. BC Editions, rose with the Air Inter "Parcours" magazine.

In expansion for three years, Dufour yachts, the manufacturer of sailboats and motor boats, is strongly settled on the French Riviera. Thus, last week, the company has inaugurated its new nautical base for the French Riviera, at the Port Gallice in Juan-les-Pins. This base has been set up at the place where a shipyard bought out last year. Dufour, traditionally very present in the Atlantic, had already a powerful site in le Var, in Pin Rolland (premises of 3.000 m2). With the Port Gallice base, it confirms the ambitions in the Mediterranean sea.

Will the company executive always be the only one to pay for the faults of the system? It is one of the matters the CJD will deal with during a debate in the evening of February 14th at the Westminster hotel.

One of the "affairs" in Nice which has been widely talked about which has been discretely concluded : the sale of "Lou Soubran", the Jacques Médecin's villa. Michel Charasse, who was secretary of the Treasury seized it in September 1992 in order to pay back the fiscal debt of the former mayor of Nice.

Créé en collaboration avec la Fondation Sophia Antipolis, le club Sophia UK a été lancé officiellement mardi 24 avril à Newcastle Upon Tyne. Implanté dans le nord est de la Grande Bretagne, il bénéficie d'une forte mobilisation de ressources et d'énergie pour le développement des secteurs fondés sur le savoir. Ce nouveau club est très lié à la technopole azuréenne. Ses responsables ont déjà participé à plusieurs reprises aux rendez-vous de l'association Sophia Start-up.

The appreciation of companies of the new economy : that is the theme of the IX Financial Meets which will take place on Friday April 27th at the Nice Arénas.

Completel is finishing the development of its optical fiber network in the Alpes-Maritimes. The local loop operator can also start its commercial offensive. They will run a first information meeting on Friday May 4th from 9.00 AM to 10.30 AM at the Novotel of Nice Arenas in order to present its new services offers. Among these, telephone services (portability of numbers and multi-site tariff offer), Internet access (wideband gateway from 100 Kbits/s to 80 Mbits/s) and data services (specialised inter-sites and inter-cities connections).

Jean-Raymond Vinciguerra, the councillor of the department and André Aschiéri's substitute MP, should be nominated as the head of the "gauche plurielle" list for the municipal elections of Grasse in 2001. This pole position in the left list was already run for by another PS councillor of department, Thierry Lautard…

A surprise in the designation of first RPR candidates in the Alpes-Maritimes : the choice of Bernard Brochand as head of the list for Cannes. Of course, Bernard Brochand was known as old friend of President of the Republic Jacques Chirac (the publicist had elaborated the communication campaigns for the presidential elections. But until now, he stayed out of the party. He subscribes to the Rassemblement pour la République only recently.

"Le soleil de Sophia Antipolis ne suffit pas à attirer les jeunes talents" : c'est le titre d'un article du journal Le Monde, version papier, sur la difficulté de recruter dans la première technopole européenne. Bruno Aubry, le correspondant régional du quotidien, a fait le point auprès d'Amadeus, de l'association de la Telecom Valley, de la Fondation Sophia Antipolis, de Sophianet.com, d'AG Consulting.

The international advertisement Festival of Cannes looks after its advertisement on the Internet. It has just launched a new version of its Internet website at the address canneslions.com. The fawn shades of the previous version which were completed with jungle noises were replaced by a more serene atmosphere, all in light powder blue.

The buy out of the Franco-British company Sema Group by the Franco-American company Schlumberger produced a considerable effect on the research park where Sema has three hundred collaborators gathered since February 2001 in its new building, Le Millenium, route des Dolines. Thus on Monday April 23rd, representatives of Schlumberger have run an information seminar to explain to employees of Sophia how the integration would be operated.

The Kyrn laboratory from Nice (skin care product) has raised 12.5 million francs with Turenne Capital, an innovation mutual-fund for the launching of its main product Keotyl. The company from Nice, which was helped by the ANVAR, had already succeed a first investment last year for the launching of this product (2.5 million francs with Sofipaca). The keotyl, which cures first and second degree burnings, is today on the market. The money invested will be used for the marketing of Keotyl in Europe.

Alcatel Spaces, which continues its American breakthrough has a new contract: the company and hold at 51% by Alcatel and at 49% by Thales, announced on Monday April 23rd an additional order of three communication satellites on behalf of GE Americom, which is part of the General Electric group. This order particularly concerns Alcatel's establishment in Cannes, which is the first manufacturer of European satellites. Then Cannes already participates to the construction of four European satellites on behalf of GE Americom. Then seven satellites have to be made by the American operator.

The reopening of the SNCF line between Cannes and Grasse, scheduled for 2005, risks to come up against a big financing problem. The scheduled planning, which has been estimated at 200 million francs (the amount has been registered in the State-Region contract) have recently been figured at 535 million francs. Almost three times more.