The “Choose France” summit which opens this Monday is already shaping up to be a record year. Emmanuel Macron will bring together for the occasion around 180 foreign bosses who will take advantage of the Versailles showcase to announce investments in France for more than 15 billion euros. According to the government, this “record” amount illustrates the ongoing reindustrialization.
Headlining is Microsoft’s announcement of 4 billion euros of investment for a new data center in eastern France and the expansion of others in the Paris region and near Marseille, to respond to the growing demand for artificial intelligence and cloud computing services.
Departure from Total against EY barometer
One month before the European elections, the executive is promoting a France in good economic health and once again attractive to multinationals, even though its largest company in terms of turnover, TotalEnergies, plans to move to the New York Stock Exchange for its main quote.
The Elysée takes as proof the latest EY barometer, which crowned France the European champion of attractiveness for the fifth year in a row. Another reason for hope for the presidency, the 0.2% economic growth in the first quarter, better than expected.
Enough to chase away criticism of French economic policy after the surprise surge in the public deficit? The presidency has in any case revealed the “record” number of 56 projects for 15 billion euros, after the 28 announcements and 13 billion for the 2023 edition.
Projects “with or without the top”
Many announcements will concern expansions or modernizations of factories, for example at the Canadian French fries giant McCain. Investment is part of the life of companies: they invest more than 200 billion euros in France each year, according to INSEE, including 35 coming from foreign multinationals. “Most of the projects announced at the summit are projects that would have seen the light of day with or without the summit,” however, believes Sylvain Bersinger, chief economist at the Asterès firm. “The heart of French attractiveness does not lie there,” he explains, citing instead the education system, the “legal, fiscal framework, the innovation environment, the local market”.
In addition to Microsoft, the projects include: a potential new low-carbon fertilizer factory in the Somme (FertigHy, 1.3 billion euros), investments by Amazon to develop its cloud infrastructures in the Paris region and its logistics infrastructure in Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes (1.2 billion); a nickel refining plant near Bordeaux for 2027 (Swiss company KL1, 300 million); a manufacturing plant for a “regional electric plane” in New Aquitaine (German company Ilium, 400 million) or even investments in pharmacy with Pfizer (500 million over five years), AstraZeneca (388 million dollars) and GSK (140 million euros).