Setting up in Paris Region

The diversity of Paris Region economic sectors

Many sectors of activity are represented in Paris Region:

• Food processing (Danone, Nestlé, Kraft Foods, etc.)
• Aerospace and defence (Airbus, Dassault, Safran, Thales, etc.)
• Automobile (Renault, PSA Group, Valeo, Bosch, Continental, etc.) 
• The banking and fintech sector (BPCE Group, BNP Paribas, Société Générale, Generali, etc.)
• The cleantech and energy sector (EDF, General Electric, Veolia, Total, etc.)
• The IT and digital sector (Orange, Free, Google, Facebook, IBM, etc.)
• The fashion, luxury and design sector (LVMH, Chanel, Hermès, L’Oréal, etc.)
• The life sciences (Sanofi Aventis, Pfizer, Roche, AstraZeneca, etc.)

Paris Region sectors are structured in clusters to share R&D projects and to develop business opportunities.

Copyright : Paris Region Key Figures 2017, Paris Region Entreprises, the Paris Ile-de-France Regional Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the Paris Region Urban Planning and Development Agency (iAU Île-de-France)

Qualified and multicultural labour

Paris Region has highly qualified labour. 35% of French managers work in the Paris Region and more than 38% of the active Paris Region population holds at least an undergraduate university degree.

A large proportion of the Paris Region population is comprised of foreigners: 1 out of 8, or approximately 1.5 million people (46% Africa, 32% Europe, 17% Asia and 5% from the American continent). 
This multiculturalism is a major asset for your success in setting up in France.

A recognized quality of life, where Paris Region residents can take advantage of both urban cultural activities and outdoors sports activities (4 natural regional parks that represent 18% of the region's land area).

Paris Region Enterprises is the agency in charge of promoting Paris Region to attract international companies and support them in setting up by providing a full range of tailored services, free of charge and with complete confidentiality, including a dedicated business advisor who enables you to:

• Assess your target markets and understand the business regulations
• Meet with key players and establish relationships with potential clients and partners
• Benefit from public support programs
• Launch your business by choosing the best legal structure, setting up your office, recruiting the right staff and opening bank accounts
• Guide you through the various steps of relocating to and setting up in Paris Region.

R&D expertises that attract foreign companies

Paris Region has more than 663,000 students in 17 universities and 70 "grandes écoles" engineering and business schools*.

Many universities and grandes écoles in the Paris Region are among the best European business schools (INSEAD, HEC, ESSEC,ESCP), and the region's prestigious technological schools and universities (Ecole Polytechnique, Ecole Normale Supérieure, Pierre and Marie Curie, Paris Diderot, Paris-Sud, etc.) are recognized around the world for the quality of their education.

Paris Region, an attractive region for expatriate families:

From Kindergarten (2-6 years) to high school (15-18 years), Paris Region offers an extensive selection of international schools and courses open to foreign and French pupils: 30 international schools & 124 international programs in 16 different languages leading to the French international high school Baccalaureate degree (OIB).

Paris Region is the leading European region in terms of R&D expenditures (public and private) with €19 billion, far ahead of the Stuttgart region with €10.63 billion (source: Eurostat 2016, data 2013)
In the Paris Region, 156,000 people work in some of the world's most innovative R&D laboratories, such as the CNRS, one of the world leaders in multidisciplinary research, the INRIA, one of the best R&D centers in the world in mathematics and information & communication technologies, the CEA, a world reference R&D centre in energy, the INSERM, an R&D institute recognized around the world in the medical field, etc.

The education of talent and the concentration of R&D expertises have convinced many foreign companies to invest in R&D activities in the Paris Region, including recently Facebook in Artificial Intelligence (2016), Intel in Big Data (2016), Fujitsu in Artificial Intelligence (2017), etc.

Copyright : Paris Region Key Figures 2017, Paris Region Entreprises, the Paris Ile-de-France Regional Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the Paris Region Urban Planning and Development Agency (iAU Ile-de-France)