Paris (AFP)

The Secretary of State for the Economy, Agnès Pannier-Runacher, announced Tuesday up to 40 million euros in funding for the manufacture of new materials that will "increase and secure" the production in France of sanitary masks .

"The State is launching today a new tool which will make it possible to finance the manufacture of new materials to increase and secure in the long term the production of standardized masks made in France," said the Secretary of State, quoted in a press release. .

Concretely, the General Direction of the companies (DGE) launched a call for expression of interest (AMI) "for the realization of units of production of filtering materials", specified the ministry.

The objective is to "develop the production lines of filtering raw materials which allow the making of protective masks (surgical, FFP1, FFP2 or FFP3)", mainly intended for professionals, he stressed.

These include producing a filter material called "meltblown", used for the production of these masks, or even other solutions such as electrospinning membranes or "innovative materials".

According to the ministry, the projects selected will be the subject of support from the State "in order to promote the realization of the investment".

Bercy provides grants of up to 30% of the investment amount and financial support of up to 40 million euros "for all the projects selected".

Projects must be submitted until June 30.

© 2020 AFP