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Archive for November, 2010

Ile-de-France: Ideal conditions for Research and Development (R&D)

Posted by Invest in France Agency in France and its regions; November 30, 2010

For Denis Tersen, Managing Director of The Economic Development Agency for Ile-de-France (Paris region), it’s “important to show that Parisians are not only romantic but tech-savvy too!” For this region does indeed offer ideal conditions for research thanks to its infrastructure, excellent universities and innovation clusters. 

These claims are backed up by the statistics: the latest report on foreign investment in France by the Invest in France Agency revealed that Ile-de-France was France’s most popular host region, attracting 191 job-creating projects in 2009. A study by the French Institute for Statistics and Economic Studies (INSEE) found that these projects included 13 R&D and engineering centers, amounting to over 25% of such investment projects in France and a six-fold year-on-year increase (compared with only two projects in 2008).

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Watching the future of technology unfold in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur region

Posted by Invest in France Agency in France and its regions; November 29, 2010

The world’s leaders in innovation gathered at the Sophia Antipolis technology park in southern France on November 18 and 19, a most apt choice of venue for the 6th annual Innovation Clusters Forum. There are a total of nine innovation clusters in the PACA  (Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur) region, including SCS (ICT), Pégase (aerospace), Capénergies (green technologies) and Optitec, which together account for 20% of France’s R&D operations in optics and photonics. 

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Foreign investors increasingly attracted to French catwalks

Posted by Invest in France Agency in Sectors of excellence; November 25, 2010

Coco Chanel, Yves Saint Laurent, Christian Dior, Jean-Paul Gaultier… just a few of the great names that have helped to spread the “French touch” around the world. These designers have made France an authority in fashion, which might explain for example why Indian designers met up recently with the organizers of the Paris Region Trade Show to fully immerse themselves in the source of all the next big trends. France really is a rite of passage for leading prêt-à-porter manufacturers, all the more so since the French market is faring well and appears to have past the worst of the global economic crisis, with clothing sales in September 2010 up 2% on September 2009.

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In France, Disney combines investment and regional development

Posted by Invest in France Agency in Country focus; November 18, 2010

In France, Disney combines investment and regional developmentWheat fields gave way to a princess’s castle, gigantic teacups and mountains as grand as the Sierra Madres. Hoards of children in costumes and Mickey and Minnie characters now play where farmers of another era once sowed their seeds.

Twenty years ago, the commune of Chessy could not have dreamed that it would one day become home to Europe’s most popular tourist destination, which has welcomed 215 million visitors since opening: Disneyland Paris.

Since the early 1990s, the population of this town 15 miles from Paris in the Seine-et-Marne département has quadrupled, soaring from 5,000 to 21,000 inhabitants, while the area surrounding Chessy, the entire eastern portion of the Ile-de-France region, has been booming since Disney arrived on the scene in 1992.

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Hu Jintao’s France visit yields further investments and economic cooperation

Posted by Invest in France Agency in Country focus, Events; November 10, 2010

The Chinese president’s trip to France ended successfully on Saturday, November 6 with the conclusion, in just 48 hours, of contracts totaling around €15 billion. Hu Jintao’s visit, coming a few days before France assumed the presidency of the G20, was an important opportunity to strengthen economic relations between the two countries, particularly as France, which hosted 8% of all Chinese investment projects in 2009, is currently only the fourth largest recipient of Chinese investment in Europe after Germany, the United Kingdom and Russia. 

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Higher education: France brings in the world’s best and brightest

Posted by Invest in France Agency in Innovation and R&D; November 5, 2010

The Sorbonne in Abu Dhabi, Ecole Centrale in Beijing or even ESSEC in Singapore: French universities are now being exported around the world. So-called emerging countries are also showing an interest. In India, Ecole Polytechnique, Centrale, Les Mines, Supelec, INSA Lyon and the University of Orsay have all recently partnered with the Indian Institute of Technology Rajasthan to train engineers specializing in IT, electricity and mechanics.

The French educational model is clearly appealing outside France’s borders. It is recognized as one of the best: five French business schools are among the top 12 business schools in Europe, according to the most recent Financial Times rankings (HEC Paris, INSEAD, EM Lyon, ESCP Europe and ESSEC).

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Education and research hubs working hand-in-hand with industry

Posted by Invest in France Agency in Innovation and R&D; November 5, 2010

“Brains.., that’s what we came to France for.” “A large number of well-trained graduates.” These comments made by Frederic Turner, Managing Director of Genzyme France, and Ingo Wassum-Paul, Chairman and CEO of Siemens Transmission & Distribution, are perfect examples of what makes France so attractive to foreign companies: its excellent education system.

And while France is now ranked 15th in the latest Global Competitiveness Index (2010-2011), it is in part because of its education system, which is ranked 11th for quality of education in mathematics and sciences and 5th for its business schools. Incidentally, 17 French business schools this year are listed in the Financial Times’ 65 best Masters in management programs. The result is a highly qualified workforce, given that 41% of the French 25- to 34-year-olds hold a tertiary education degree according to the OECD report Education at a Glance 2010. That puts France above the OECD average (35%) and ahead of the United Kingdom.

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