CHOOSE FRANCE SUMMIT: FRANCE IS STILL THE MOST ATTRACTIVE COUNTRY

The 5th edition of the Choose France Summit confirms the leading position of France in terms of attractiveness for investors. With, as major announcement, the commitment of fourteen foreign companies for a total amount of 6.7 billion euros and the creation of 4,000 permanent jobs.
For the past four years, the Choose France Summit, held this year at the Château de Versailles, has become a key event dedicated to the attractiveness of France and a key meeting place between foreign investors, the French government and the main French or international companies. Established by French President Emmanuel Macron, this summit aims at “presenting and explaining to major international companies the reforms carried out to promote economic activity in our country”. It is also an opportunity to highlight the importance of international investment in supporting growth, innovation and employment throughout France.

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A summit bringing together 180 business leaders for 14 major projects
The Choose France Summit, which this year welcomed more than 180 foreign business leaders, resulted in some exceptional announcements, including 14 major companies announcing investments in France up to €6.7 billion, and the creation of 4,000 permanent jobs. The French government says that these commitments confirm “the attractiveness of our country as a location for structuring projects at European level”.

These projects illustrate a wide range of sectors (health, automotive, aerospace, naval, finance, technology) and underline France’s attractiveness, particularly in terms of “new technologies and strategic sectors contributing to the reindustrialisation of the territory or marking the potential of the French market”. Specific examples include:

the mega-fab project by STMicroelectronics (Switzerland) and GlobalFoundries (United States) located in the Isère region, which drew more than 5.7 billion euros of investment and the creation of 1,000 jobs, i.e. “the largest industrial investment of the last few decades outside of nuclear power”;
the Amadeus group project (Spain), European leader in the technological management of reservations for the tourist sector, which continues its expansion in France by committing 80 million euros for the creation of 800 jobs, in Île-de-France and Alpes-Maritimes regions;
Other investments will help develop employment in other French regions:

the FedEX project (United States), a key player in the logistics and transport sector which is already “an integral part of the French economy” and which plans to create 1,200 new permanent jobs in Roissy (Val-d’Oise);
the Accenture project (Ireland) which plans to create 500 jobs at a new technological development and innovation centre in the Finistère region.

A summit to confirm France’s attractiveness
On the basis of these concrete investment announcements, the French Government recalls that, for the third consecutive year, France is the most attractive country in Europe, according to the latest results of the EY barometer.  More than 1,200 investment projects from foreign investors have been identified for 2021, an increase of 24% compared to 2020. By way of comparison, “projects have only increased by 2% in the United Kingdom and fallen by 10% in Germany, France’s main competitors in Europe”. France therefore has a greater capacity to rebound than the rest of Europe with a record level of investment projects when the number of projects in the Union is below its 2019 level.

In addition to the EY barometer, the Ministry of the Economy reports on a study carried out for Business France, the national agency in charge of international development, among a panel of foreign economic decision-makers on their perception of France’s attractiveness. According to this survey, a total of 701 company executives with at least 200 employees from Germany, the United Kingdom, Switzerland, the United States, Canada, Korea and Japan were polled between 10 and 20 May. Two key points emerged:

for 69% of them, France’s attractiveness has improved over the last five years and 74% of them consider that it will improve further in the coming years;
46% of foreign investors who have already invested in France did so because of the quality of the services offered by the public authorities to support the setting up of their business. This support is the “first reason why foreign investors have considered or chosen France”.
And the Government concludes that it is this dynamism and attractiveness that were confirmed at the Choose France Summit.