France is the 5th largest economy in the world with an estimated GDP of US $2.49 trillion in 2009.
Major market potential: France has a population of 64.3 million with strong purchasing power. Its strategic location at the heart of the European Union, the world’s largest single market, offers direct access to nearly 500 million consumers (estimates: January 2009).
France is also the world’s number-one tourist destination, with 79.3 million visitors in 2008 (estimates: 2009).

France is home to 3 million companies. According to Forbes, large French groups are among the world’s top 200 companies, including Total (11th), GDF Suez (17th) EDF Group (27th), BNP Paribas (29th), Crédit Agricole (34th), France Télécom (46th), Société Générale (60th), Groupe Sanofi Aventis (65th), Axa Group (99th), Vivendi (103th), Carrefour Group (111th), Inci Group (149th), L’Oréal Group (176th), CNP Assurances (181th), Saint-Gobain (184th), Bouygues (185th), Danone (189th).

France is at the crossroads of Europe with quick and easy connections to all major destinations.
France has one of Europe’s longest and safest road networks with over 11,000 km (nearly 7,000 miles) of highways and 1 million km (620,000 miles) of roads.
TGV high-speed trains offer passengers drastically shorter journeys between European cities, in safety and in comfort. Paris to London takes only 2 hours 15 minutes, Paris to Brussels takes 1 hour 20 minutes and Paris to Strasbourg takes 2 hours 20 minutes.
French airports handled more than 122.7 million passengers and 2.3 million tons of cargo in 2008. France has 80 main airports with regular commercial flights. Ranked 5th in the world by passenger numbers and 6th for cargo traffic in 2008, Paris Charles de Gaulle airport is the leading hub in France with more than 60 million passengers. 5 other airports handled over 6 million passengers each in 2008: Paris-Orly, Nice-Côte d’Azur, Lyon-Saint-Exupéry, Marseille-Provence and Toulouse-Blagnac.

The internet broadband penetration rate in France is 28.05%, higher than in other major European countries like Germany (27.36%) and Italy (19.17%), and rivaling that of the UK (28.54%) and Belgium (28.59%). With 17.7 million subscribers in 2008, the high-speed internet market is developing rapidly.
In addition, France’s telecommunications rates are among the lowest in the European Union, and its network connections are extremely reliable.

According to KPMG, France has the lowest business setup and operating costs among the European countries it surveyed, and was ranked 5th among the ten countries that were examined. Real estate prices are lower in France than in the UK, for both residential and commercial properties. Paris was ranked 2nd after Tokyo in the world for the number of “Fortune Global 500” company headquarters it hosted in 2009.

France’s dynamic energy market is one of the most competitive in the world. Industrial-use electricity rates per kilowatt hour (inc. VAT) are more competitive in France (€0.12) than in either the UK (€0.15) or Germany (€0.23). Industrial-use natural gas rates per gigajoule (inc. VAT) are also lower in France (€14.89) than in Germany (€18.37) and are in line with rates in the UK (€14.17). For energy-hungry projects, these are significant advantages.
Nuclear power has long been the focus of France’s energy strategy, supplying 77% of the nation’s electricity, but the market is now evolving at a rapid pace. France has successfully met its Kyoto emissions targets, and government incentives are boosting growth in new sectors ripe for investment, with renewable energy leading the way: solar power, wind farms, hydroelectricity, biomass and biofuels are all essential to France’s future energy plan.
Investors are taking notice, and France is ranked as the world’s joint 3rd most attractive market for biofuel investment, according to the Ernst & Young “Biofuels Country Attractiveness Indices 2007”.

International investors who choose France benefit from a number of key advantages. From a highly productive and talented workforce to world-class infrastructure and low business costs, France is a smart investment choice.
France is ranked 3rd in the world after the United States and Norway for the best labor productivity per hour, with a higher hourly output than in other large European countries (International Labour Organization figures).

France has a highly qualified workforce, skilled at multitasking and readily adaptable to new working methods. A very high percentage of the population goes on to higher education; France is ranked 3rd in Europe for the percentage of young people (25-to-34-year-olds) holding a degree in tertiary education, according to Eurostat.
The Financial Times “European Business Schools” 2008 list ranked 5 of France’s leading business and management schools among the top 12 in Europe: HEC Paris, INSEAD, ESCP Europe, EM Lyon Business School and ESSEC. In a sample of the top 60 postgraduate business schools in Europe, HEC Paris was ranked 1st for the third year in a row.
With almost 270,000 foreign students in 2008, France was ranked 4th among leading host countries in the world.

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