Choose France Prize 2020: the alliance of French territories and international investors

Under the supervision of three ministries (foreign affairs, economy, territories), Business France has made public the results of its 2^nd edition of the Choose France Prizes. The aim of this competition was to honour both the international investors who have chosen France to set up in business and the French territories that have welcomed them.

The Choose France Prizes organised by Business France, the French agency for the internationalisation of the French economy, aim to reward foreign investors. More specifically, according to the competition rules, these companies must, “through their commitment to France and its territories”, contribute “to the international attractiveness of France and its economic influence”.

Fifty companies and three main themes

Fifty applications have been registered this year to participate in the Choose France Prizes: foreign companies established in France, from around twenty countries and five continents, based in twelve French regions. The Prizes thus highlight the support provided to foreign investors’ projects through concrete examples that show the effects of the partnership between Business France and economic development players in the regions.

The winning companies, representing companies of all sizes (large groups, but also SMEs and start-ups), were selected by a jury made up of institutional personalities and qualified individuals (Business France partners, French regions, international business leaders).

Three main categories, which illustrate French priorities in terms of economic recovery, were eligible to compete: ecological transition, competitiveness and innovation, cohesion and solidarity. All these priorities could be represented by fields as diverse as aeronautics, automotive, food processing, mechanical engineering, robotics, pharmaceuticals, but also recycling techniques and processes.

Five prize-winning companies

At the end of the deliberations, five prizes were awarded. The first three prizes provided for in the regulations concerned the sectors defined as priorities:

• the Ecological Transition Prize for the company Novo Nordisk, a pharmaceutical laboratory from Denmark which last year invested 50 million euros in the site in Chartres (Centre-Val de Loire region) and whose objective is to use only green energy;
• the Competitiveness & Innovation Prize to Collins Aerospace, an American aeronautics and space construction company, for its Centre of Excellence for Propellers in the Occitanie region, which designs 60% of its equipment in France;
• the Cohesion & Solidarity Prize to the British IT-SCC company and its two sites (Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes and Hauts-de-France regions), for its approach to hiring employees with employability problems.

In addition to these three awards, two other distinctions were also made, more related to the exceptional health context of 2020:

• a Special Jury Prize to Recipharm (Sweden), whose site in the city of Monts (Centre-Val de Loire region) produced a pharmaceutical version of Moderna’s vaccine in record time;
• a Covid-19 Special Prize, awarded to the German company Dräger for the relocation of an industrial site in France to Obernai (Grand-Est region). The Dräger company has indeed invested in an industrial production site in France for the production of high-tech respiratory protection masks in order to meet “the health and industrial needs of the French and international markets”.

More about the Choose France 2020 Prizes: 

- Choose France Prizes (in French)

- The 2020 competition (in French)

Photo credit:  ©Business France