Why choose France

France’s geographical location makes it a hub for serving European and African markets.

• The world’s seventh largest economy in 2023
• Seventh in the world and fourth in Europe for good exports sales revenues in 2023

The French administrative and regulatory environment has been considerably modernized, thanks to a strategy of structural reforms.

Did you know?

France is ranked among the countries where business creation is the fastest: four days are needed to create a business, compared with eight days in Germany and 10 days in Switzerland.

(Source: Institute for Management Development (IMD) – Lausanne Institute – 2024)

The rate of state aid for business enterprise R&D expenditure is the highest among OECD countries.

• Third country in Europe and seventh in the world for R&D spending in 2022
• Second country in Europe for patent filings in 2023

Did you know?

With 11.4 researchers per 1,000 employees in 2021, France is above the European average (10.8 researchers per 1,000 employees in Germany and 10 in the United States)

The research tax credit aims to support business R&D, without restrictions on sector or size. The credit is 30% of R&D expenditure up to €100 million and 5% above this amount. It is one of the most generous R&D tax support schemes in the OECD.

France guarantees businesses largely decarbonized electricity at attractive prices, while pursuing its target of achieving carbon neutrality by 2050.

• 62% of electricity in 2022 was produced by nuclear energy (International Energy Agency (IEA), 2024)
• 88% of electricity came from decarbonized production methods in 2022 (International Energy Agency (IEA), 2024)
• Largest nuclear power facilities in Europe
• €27 billion has been invested to decarbonize  industry, as part of the “France 2030” plan

The quality of French higher education is recognized worldwide.

• 18 French universities appeared in the Top 500 of the Academic Ranking of World Universities 2024 by the Shanghai Ranking Consultancy
• France was the sixth-largest host country for internationally mobile students in the world in 2021
• 42% of the 25- to 64-years old age group held a higher education diploma in 2022

Labor productivity is very high in France. It is the fourth most dynamic economy among OECD countries in terms of the growth in the efficiency of its production system.

Did you know?

Hourly productivity reached €65.60 in 2023 in purchasing power parity, compared with €53.38 in Spain, €53.50 in Italy and €42.90 in Poland.
Source: OECD

Having a site in France is characterized by very high-quality transport and telecommunications infrastructures.

• 2nd longest railway network in Europe
• Paris-Charles de Gaulle is the European Union’s leading airport in terms of passenger numbers and the second for freight in 2022 (Eurostat)
• 6 major seaports nationwide
• More than 51% of France is covered by very high-speed internet (speed greater than 30 Mbit/s).

All figures on this page are taken from the “Attractiveness Indicators”, 2023-2024, published by Business France