French president Jacques Chirac will on Tuesday seek to shore up his political legacy with the reinvigoration of Franco-German industrial policy spearheaded by the launch of a €1.7bn ($2.1bn, £1.2bn) series of innovative grand projets – including the creation of a multimedia search engine to rival Google.

Other projects include Neoval, an advanced light train; Biohub, the production of plastics from starch; Homes, the generation of electricity in households; and TV MSL, high-quality television broadcast over mobile phones.