Attractiveness of territories: France stands its grounds!

The Territory Attractiveness Index uses an online survey, which is voluntary and accessible to the entire network of Foreign Trade Advisors of about 4,500 people, i.e. two thirds of whom are based abroad in 152 countries. Their task is to assess the perception that potential investors have of France’s attractiveness using a dozen criteria.

New assets in addition to historical assets

Using this large sample of respondents, Eurogroup Consulting’s analysts assessed that in 2022, France’s attractiveness index will remain on the rise, after a drop in 2021 due to the health situation. The 64 points (out of 100) scored in the index show that France’s attractiveness no longer seems to be affected by the impact of this crisis. For 78% of respondents, the attractiveness of the country is now considered “good” or “fairly good”, a score that has even improved over the last six months for 58% of them.

With “renewed optimism”, the interest in the French territory is confirmed this year. Indeed, observers note that France “has lost none of its historical assets that have continued to attract foreign investors for several years: the cultural environment, the quality of infrastructures, the quality of life and the environment, the capacity for innovation and research and the quality of the workforce”. And this goes despite a clear drop in the “energy supply and cost” criterion, due to the current tensions on the energy commodities markets.

Moreover, the perception of the respondents to the survey shows a trend towards improvement, even on “criteria that are traditionally weak points for the attractiveness of the country”, namely labour flexibility and social climate, labour costs, administrative burden and taxation.

The network of Foreign Trade Advisors says that such points that can be explained by the actions taken by the Government, such as the reduction in production taxes, the specific support programme for industry, the 2030 recovery plan followed by the France 2030 plan, and the maintenance of the research tax credit, which appear to be “sources of satisfaction for business leaders”.

Few disparities between regions of the world

In detail, by analysing the perception by geographical area, we can observe which parts of the world most attracted to France:

- Latin America and the Caribbean region: with 69 points, i.e. an increase of 2.7 points since 2021, the index for this region of the world exceeds the global index for this 2022 edition by 5.1 points;

- Asia-Pacific region: this region, which traditionally views France’s attractiveness with most criticism, has an index of 61.4 this year,

a slight increase on 2021;

- For the other regions, the average closely follows the overall average: Europe registers an index score of 64 points, Eurasia 65 points, North America 63 points, the Middle East and North Africa 65 points and Africa 64 points.

A territorial dimension in relation with international awareness

This new edition of the French Attractiveness Index also looks at the specific attractiveness of the various French territories and their metropolises. If we compare the metropolises, we note in particular that “the least attractive territories mainly suffer from a lack of reputation in the world”. Observers also note that on the other hand, regions that benefit from a positive image have real advantages such as “their geographical position and associated infrastructures, their research and training ecosystems and their quality of life”:

- Most attractive regions: Ile-de-France (71% positive responses), Auvergne Rhône-Alpes (50%) and Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur (49%);

- Most attractive metropolises: Lyon (75% positive responses), which remains the most attractive metropolis overall with the best quality of infrastructure, Greater Paris (73%), which remains in the lead in terms of its capacity for innovation and research, Nice (62%) and Bordeaux (60%), praised for their quality of life and environment, and Toulouse (52%), favoured for its lower installation costs Next come: Lille (48%), Aix-Marseille (46%) and Strasbourg (45%).

To know more: 

- CCE website

- Presentation of the study