Why have we decided to publish a scoreboard on France’s attractiveness as an investment location?
A great number of benchmarks examining the competitiveness of different economies, tax regimes, tertiary education systems and different business environments already exist, and each of them provides useful information. Yet many of them suffer from methodological limitations and, as such, the rankings they produce can vary significantly from one study to another.
Moreover, attractiveness is ultimately a relative concept as France is compared on a daily basis by foreign investors with its neighbors and rivals.
The 8th World Investment Conference in La Baule saw Ernst & Young present its annual European Attractiveness Survey.
France’s ranking this year is notable for three reasons:
- Second after the United Kingdom for the number of job-creating foreign investment projects, as well as for the total number of jobs;
- First in Europe for the three key sectors for future competitiveness and growth: industrial projects, R&D projects and environmental technology projects;
- Conversely, the Ernst & Young 2010 Survey also highlights that France is lagging behind Germany and the United Kingdom as a recipient of Chinese and Indian foreign investment projects.
The IFA’s promotional campaign, specifically targeting BRIC countries, unveiled earlier this year is already seeking to correct ignorance and misguided beliefs where they might exist, while the number of IFA personnel is also being increased in these parts of the world.
The new IFA office in Turkey and our participation at the Saint Petersburg International Economic Forum next week are part of this strategy.
David Appia
Chairman and CEO, Invest in France
The “Indian Investors Club”, created to support the development of Indian companies in France, met last week at the IFA’s headquarters in Paris. Around 60 companies and business people from France and India took part in this seminar, including 18 companies who travelled from India especially for the occasion. On the agenda were topics such as international mobility, corporate taxation and how to expand into the French market.
India has come to the forefront in recent years as a treasured investment partner: over 80 companies from the country have established themselves in France, mostly in the software/IT services sector, the consulting, engineering and business services sector and the electrical, electronic and IT equipment sector.
France’s inward investment results for 2009 were announced on March 9, 2010 by French Finance Minister Ms. Christine Lagarde and the Regional Development Minister, Mr. Michel Mercier: 639 job-creating foreign investment projects in France were decided upon last year, generating 29,889 jobs.
With project numbers higher than in 2007, and nearly as high as in 2008, the results offer a measure of France’s economic attractiveness in a period marked by a sharp decline in foreign investment flows throughout the world.
The global economic crisis has had a variety of effects on investment in France:
I would like to take a look back at the press conference this morning where the Invest in France Agency’s new campaign to promote France’s attractiveness as an investment location was formally launched. The campaign will be rolled out this year in many countries around the world, specifically targeting the United States, China, India, Brazil, along with European and GCC countries.
Why then are we launching this campaign? Our aims are threefold: to take full advantage of the growing number of investments from these countries or world regions which harbor such strong potential; to correct any outdated or misguided beliefs about doing business in France where they might exist; and to capitalize on the very positive image that France enjoys abroad, thanks to the numerous reforms undertaken in the last three years, where it is seen as a responsive, dynamic and innovative country.
The campaign’s slogan – “France: Expect more” – will carry a message, from San Francisco to Rio de Janeiro, from Bangalore to Dalian, to foreign businesses everywhere: France can offer you more than you might expect; more entrepreneurial spirit, more creativity, more opportunities and visibility to develop your projects in Europe.
To reflect this, ten foreign companies who have already invested in France will relate their experiences in the Wall Street Journal, Barrons, Valor Econômico, The Times of India and China Business News, among other titles. The digital part of the campaign will offer variations on these themes. Ogilvy has been chosen as our partner, and Invest in France offices are involved worldwide.
France’s economic attractiveness can ultimately be gauged by the number of decisions taken to invest in the country: a press conference is arranged for March 9, 2010 when the IFA’s 2009 Report on job-creating foreign direct investment in France shall be unveiled.
David Appia
The World Economic Forum in Davos ended with a general consensus that although the worst of the global economic crisis is behind us, signs of recovery are fragile and collective action is still essential. The primary concern in 2010 is employment. According to Larry Summers, the United States is experiencing a “statistical recovery and a human recession.”
French Finance Minister Christine Lagarde was the keynote speaker at the Davos luncheon co-sponsored by the IFA and Deloitte
“Statistical recovery” ? Certainly not for foreign direct investment (FDI). According to UNCTAD estimates, global FDI flows plunged 39% in 2009, following a 14% decline in 2008. Merger and acquisition activity appears to have taken an even harder hit, with a 66% decrease in 2009, after a 35% drop in 2008.
This is the first occasion I have had to acknowledge the new IFA website going live a few weeks ago, which we hope you will find to be:
- clearer: the new site has been expressly redesigned with this in mind and has been supplemented by a new “Daily Motion – IFA” space, where videos featuring reaction and testimonials from foreign business executives are now hosted, along with IFA productions about France.
France is the #1 investment destination in Europe
- more open: better links towards IFA partners, regional development agencies and innovation clusters in particular, offering even more insights into the wealth and diversity of France’s regions.
- more welcoming: providing information to foreign businesses interested in France is obliging us to broaden the multilingual aspect of our website as new actors on the international investment scene grow in power and stature. In addition to English, German, Spanish, Chinese and Japanese, content will soon follow in other languages, such as Italian, Portuguese, Korean, Russian and Arabic.
- more interactive: this blog space is an invitation to exchange views about issues relating to international investment, France’s economic attractiveness and perceptions that foreign investors may have of the country.
I hope that all our readers enjoy using our new site, particularly those in Stockholm, where I was at the beginning of last week. Sweden is an important partner: over 700 dynamic and innovative Swedish companies are already doing business in France. More generally, Scandinavian countries have an enduring interest in our country, with over forty new investment projects in France given the go-ahead last year.
David Appia, Ambassador for International Investment, Chairman and CEO, Invest in France
Investment is central to France’s response to the global economic crisis and the challenges of sustainable growth. France’s stimulus plan launched in late 2008 focused on a thousand projects to boost growth and competitiveness. The “national loan” bond issue decided upon in 2009 will allow €35 billion to be invested in university education and facilities, scientific and technological research, industrial policy, the digital economy, and sustainable development.
At the same time, investment is being supported in France by the series of reforms which have been initiated since 2007 to improve the competitiveness of the economy, including: the exemption of overtime hours from tax and social security contributions; the introduction of the “auto entrepreneur” regime; and the possibility of terminating work contracts by mutual consent, which have all helped to make the labor market more flexible.
