“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.
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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.
The French pharmaceutical industry continues to attract foreign labs
France and its pharmaceutical industry are in good health. The latest proof came just a month ago when the world’s second largest pharmaceutical company, British-American laboratory GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), made a €51 million investment in France. This considerable sum is to be spent on the new François Hyafil research center in the Paris region (Ile-de-France), which is tasked with discovering new medications for diseases like diabetes and obesity.
And GSK’s investment project is no one-off: France continues to be the destination of choice for medical research and manufacturing, as clearly shown in a 2009 survey conducted by AEC Partners on “the attractiveness and competitiveness of France”, commissioned by LEEM, the French pharmaceutical companies association. The 20 or so pharmaceutical multinationals polled for the survey believe that “for its size, France is one of the two major European markets and the third largest market in the world, after the United States and Japan”. And that’s not all, because France has also been Europe’s leading producer of medications for nearly 15 years.
France is a source of inspiration for the cosmetics industry, with leading firms like L’Oréal and more recently Natura from Brazil. And it is this gift which frequently drives major trends in fashion and luxury products onto the radar of key industry players worldwide.
Japanese firm Shiseido is no exception: “Paris has fueled the Shiseido culture,” confides Shinzo Maeda, CEO of the group. The Japanese giant is celebrating 30 years in the French market by holding a contemporary art exhibit in Paris. Theirs is a success story that has unfolded one step at a time.
Business Tourism in France is Booming
Posted by Invest in France Agency in Sectors of excellence; September 27, 2010
France is still the most popular tourist destination with 74 million foreign visitors in 2009. Yet France is also a top choice for business tourism, as evidenced by specialized trade shows Réunir and Top Résa, to be held in Paris September 21-24.
In 2008, over 34,000 exhibitors from businesses based outside France attended 490 trade shows and 68 fairs that drew nearly 775,000 foreign visitors. These events included a number of international events like the Batimat International Building Trade Show (2,280 exhibitors including 45% from abroad, 288,450 visitors, 29,100 of whom were foreign visitors), the global meet for the agric-food industry SIAL (147,850 visitors from 185 countries) and the Vinexpo wine exhibition in Bordeaux (2,235 exhibitors, 67,600 visitors, including 26,000 foreign visitors). There are also professional trade shows open to the general public, such as the Paris Air Show, the Paris Motor Show, and the International Agriculture Show.
France Means Innovation (IFA, 2009)
This Thursday, September 9 was “back-to-school time” for innovation in France, with a speech by Google CEO Eric Schmidt entitled “Innovation culture in Europe and in the US” at Sciences Po Paris. Innovation culture in France has a long history and now has more than ever before going for it.
Firstly, there’s France’s highly qualified workforce: 32% of French employees in 2008 were working in science and technology occupations . What’s more, France has 211,000 researchers at its disposal, or 8 researchers for every 1,000 inhabitants, a higher density of scientific credentials than any of its European neighbors.
Google’s CEO in hot pursuit of French brain power
Posted by Invest in France Agency in Events, Innovation and R&D, Sectors of excellence; September 9, 2010
Photo credit: Sciences Po
3:01pm: Students at the Institut d’Etudes Politiques de Paris (Sciences Po) clamor for the last seats in a large lecture theater. 3:05pm: Eric Schmidt, CEO of Google, enters the stage to thundering applause and the audience can already sense the importance of this exceptional lecture…
Photo credit: john_a_ward on Flickr
Global IT services are part of a rapidly changing market. Indian IT consulting firms have traditionally operated in English-speaking markets, but the trend seems to be reversing as they set their sights on France. Pierre Audoin Consultants reports that in 2010 the sector grew by 2.2% in France, but by only 1.6% in Germany and 1.4% in the United Kingdom.
Since the US financial crisis hit, Indian companies have essentially been trying to realign their businesses by investing in new markets. France is the world’s fifth largest IT market, which quickly made it a preferred location. “Relatively speaking, France has not been hit that badly by the economic downturn, compared with the UK for example. It’s in times like these that companies look to acquire or consolidate a comparative advantage,” notes Narayana Murthy, Chairman of Infosys. In addition to a robust banking sector, the power of major energy groups and a strong public sector make France a naturally attractive market.
French aerospace industry taking off again with foreign companies in the co-pilot’s chair
Posted by Invest in France Agency in Sectors of excellence; July 8, 2010
The Berlin Air Show celebrated its 100th birthday this year at a time when things are starting to look up. When it closed on June 13, Airbus walked out the door with US $15 billion of new orders in its pocket, or almost six months of work for the aircraft manufacturer. Its Chief Operating Officer, John Leahy, says he can see “green shoots of industry recovery.” Evidence of these “green shoots” came at the 2010 Farnborough International Airshow where Airbus and Boeing won nearly 400 commitments between them.
- Airbus 380 (Photo credit: Phinalanji on Flickr)
Let’s look at the facts: after a jittery 2009, the French aerospace industry is taking off again. But can we keep calling it a French industry? As we all know, Airbus is a joint venture between the UK, France, Germany and Spain. As well as high-profile national gems like Dassault, Safran, Eurocopter, Arianespace and Thales, France is also home to a number of international players in the sector…
France, a very real “virtual” market
Posted by Invest in France Agency in Sectors of excellence; June 22, 2010
We’ve already learned that the French are keen on going “green”. But less well known is their passion for new technology. This market has already achieved a degree of maturity and could open up a number of opportunities for foreign companies. In fact, the ICT sector generated turnover of €110.6 billion in 2009, or 15.5% of the entire European market, making France the third-largest market on the continent after Italy and Spain. The EITO[1] also estimates that the development of the telecommunications market in France is much stronger than the European average, primarily because of the boom in mobile data services, up 20% in 2009…
