Fourth edition of the “Choose France” summit at Versailles

Since 2018, the “Choose France” summit, launched by the President of France, Emmanuel Macron, has become the flagship event to showcase France’s attractiveness. This event, which takes place every year at the Palace of Versailles, sees several hundred leaders from some of the world’s largest businesses meet the French President and members of the government.

The summit aims to promote France’s attractiveness and to encourage international investment across the country. Now firmly on the international business community’s calendar, “Choose France” stands out for its strong emphasis on direct exchanges between economic and political decision-makers.

On June 28, 2021, the fourth edition of the “Choose France” summit was held. This edition brought together more than 200 top business leaders, including 120 foreign executives. The summit also welcomed high-ranking guests, such as European Commissioner for the Internal Market Thierry Breton along with Minister Delegate for Foreign Trade and Economic Attractiveness Franck Riester, WTO Director General, Ms. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, and Professor Klaus Schwab, founder of the World Economic Forum. Their attendance demonstrates just how quickly this event has joined the ranks of major economic meetings, after having only begun in 2018.

The 2021 edition focused on resilience and economic recovery in France and Europe. Three workshops were led by the consulting firm BCG on the themes of the relocation and resilience of European industry, on breakthrough innovations and logistics issues. The ecological transition and decarbonization of the economy were also discussed.

Nearly 400 bilateral meetings were held between the French President, members of the government and the directors of both French and foreign businesses, to discuss in detail their investment projects in France and make them aware of France’s economic strengths.

The 2021 edition of the summit was very similar to those of previous years, with 22 new investment projects worth €3.5 billion having been unveiled and the creation of 7,000 jobs across France. Among these projects is the Envision group’s battery gigafactory on the Renault site in Douai (Hauts de France region), amounting to an investment of €2 billion, with 2,500 jobs set to be created there by 2030.

This “Choose France” summit is the result of several successful years of promoting France’s attractiveness, the leading country for foreign investment for the second consecutive year, ahead of the United Kingdom and Germany (EY’s annual Attractiveness Survey). France has also been ranked the top host country in Europe for foreign investment in industry for more than 15 years and for strategic R&D projects since 2018.