Choose France Awards 2021
Business France honors international investors and their contribution to the “Relaunch France” plan.
For this new 2021 edition, Business France honors international investors and their contribution to the “Relaunch France” plan. The winners will be selected by a jury chaired by Pascal Cagni, Ambassador for International Investment and Chairman of Business France, bringing together institutions and business professionals.
The members of the jury have chosen to honor five projects that make a significant contribution to the “Relaunch France” plan and to award them the following prizes:
- “Ecological Transition” prize awarded to Norske Skog, a Norwegian firm which invested €250 million in its paper mill in Golbey (Grand Est region) for the conversion of one of its newsprint production lines to 100% recycled cardboard packaging.
- “Competitiveness & Innovation” prize awarded to the Belgian company X-FAB, which invested €65 million in 2021 to relocate high value-added automotive technologies from Asia to the Corbeil-Essonnes site (Ile de France region) for the manufacture of semiconductors, which are strategic materials for French industry.
- “Cohesion & Solidarity” prize awarded to the German company CLAAS for working to make agricultural machinery attractive, with the opening last year of a technoparc in Ymeray (Pays de la Loire region), which will serve as a platform for promoting trades and industry.
- Special “Contribution to the recovery plan” prize awarded to Chiesi, an Italian pharmaceutical laboratory which has invested in the industrial site of Chaussée-Saint-Victor (Centre Val de Loire region) in order to develop metered-dose aerosols with a lower carbon impact. Autonomous from an energy point of view, the laboratory contributes to the resilience of the healthcare system in France and to the creation of jobs.
- Special Talent prize awarded to American company Procter & Gamble, which made an investment of €40 million in 2021 to make its Amiens site a “Factory of the Future”, creating industrial jobs with high technological value.
The winners were announced on October 5, 2021, at the Sorbonne, during the Etats de France event organized by DZA in partnership with Business France.
Presentation of the Choose France Awards 2021 by Minister Franck Riester
The jury
The Awards Selection Committee is made up of representatives of the ministries and monitors the quality of the applications submitted. The winners are chosen by a high-profile Jury bringing together institutions and business professionals. The President of the Jury is Pascal Cagni, Ambassador for International Investment and Chairman of Business France.
