Choose France Summit: An important event for the economic attractiveness of France

17 January 2020 Business

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On January 21^st, the Palace of Versailles held the Choose France Summit, with the objective to boost the economic attractiveness of France for international companies.

“Choose France: a great opportunity for the French!” This is how the official website of the French government presented a summit pragmatically organised to “attract companies” and “convince them to invest in France, to choose France”.

A Summit in the presence of the French president

For the second edition of the summit gathering about 150 business leaders and several members of the French government, the visit of the French president was expected to close this half-day of exchanges focused on six themed workshops and over 400 interviews.

The French government underlined that “high-profile personalities were present, with CEOs from Microsoft, General Electrics, Alibaba, Samsung, Uber and Ikea, and French directors from Airbus, Danone, and Engie”, as well as representatives from public companies such as Business France or the Public Bank of Investment.

This is an AAA+ cast for a summit that resulted last year in “investment pledges up to 3.5 billion Euros and 2,200 potential job creations over five years”.

France is the leader in European industrial attractiveness

Before this major economic event, the audit and consulting firm EY had published the results of its survey dedicated to the attractiveness of France for foreign investments. The survey was led with 210 executives involved in international investment decisions and showed that France is “surprisingly attractive and keeps the lead in Europe in manufacturing sites for foreign manufacturers”. According to the survey, in 2018, “339 projects of creation and extension of production units were designed in France”.