“We are the only country in the European Union that shares a border with you: French Guiana!”
These were the words chosen by the IFA’s Managing Director, Serge Boscher, to open his speech to Brazilian investors gathered at the Hôtel Bristol in central Paris on December 14, 2010. Jointly organized with the Brazil Chamber of Commerce in France and under the distinguished patronage of Brazil’s Ambassador to France José Mauricio Bustani, this meeting of the “Brazilian Investors Club” in France was attended by some 50 experts and decision-makers from the two countries. The event was an opportunity to unveil France’s latest advances in labor law, taxation and mobility for foreign executives.
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Business and government invest in sustainable regions for France
Posted by Invest in France Agency in Green; December 22, 2010
In France, urban development and sustainable development have gone hand in hand since 2005, which is when the first National Interest Planning Project (Opération d’urbanisme d’Intérêt National – OIN) was created. So what are they? These projects are future development operations concentrated in a region or area. There are currently 13 OINs partially or fully developed and each one has goals specific to its location and regional economic challenges, which may include revitalizing the area and its economy, developing a research and education cluster, or redeveloping a city to improve relations between residents and local companies.
“La bosse des maths” (a math whiz) is a uniquely French expression and it was put to very good use on August 19, 2010 when two Frenchmen, Cédric Villani and Ngô Bao Châu, were awarded the Fields Medal – the highest honor a mathematician could ever hope for. Considered to be ‘the Nobel Prize in mathematics’, this exceptional award “consolidates the second place of French mathematical research in the world”, according to a joint press release issued by the CNRS (French National Center of Scientific Research), ENS (Ecole normale supérieure) and Pierre-et-Marie-Curie University.
“After obtaining a visa and registering with the French Company Register, I finally got my hands on my ‘Skills and Expertise’ residence permit… but it was a bit of an obstacle course for me to become legal in France,” admits Li Ruizhi, CEO of CITS (China International Travel Service), which has been in Paris since 1992 and currently employs seven people. Despite a few “small hitches”, the IFA and its partners (Atout France, the French tourism promotion agency and the OFII, the French Office for Immigration and Integration) did everything in their power to ensure that she didn’t wait any longer than necessary for her “Skills and Expertise” residence permit which she herself describes as a “real door opener”. This new three-year renewable residence permit is just one of the latest incentives France is offering to foreign nationals coming to work in the country.
Alsace, Rhône-Alpes, Pays-de-la-Loire: a short tour of the attractiveness of France’s regions
Posted by Invest in France Agency in France and its regions; December 1, 2010
With 191 foreign investment projects in 2009 and ideal conditions for research and development, the Ile-de-France region is noticeably popular with multinational firms. But European and global groups alike have also been quick to set up in other areas of France that can also make strong investment cases. In this post, the spotlight falls on three such regions.
