PARIS: French president Jacques Chirac on Thursday proposed a reduction in the French corporate tax rate to 20 per cent from 33 per cent over five years in a bid to make France a more attractive place to do business. Chirac, in New Year comments to management and labor groups, also predicted that the French jobless rate by the end of the year would fall to a 25-year low and urged the European Union to adopt an exchange rate policy. “To preserve our businesses and to attract others we have to act on the (French) corporate tax rate,” he said, which at its current level of 33 per cent is eight points above the European average.