Video Christine Lagarde:

• Total GDP of € 481 Bn and direct access to around 450 Mn consumers within a 500 km radius;
• Represents 1/3 rd of France 's GDP, more than Denmark 's or Belgium 's;
• 2 nd largest recipient of Forbes 500's companies (after Tokyo , but before New York ).
• Highly diversified economy with strongholds in aeronautics, automobile, IT and agrifood industries.
• A recognised political stability and legal security

• Largest continental Europe airports in both air traffic and passengers carried & linked with 530 cities in 135 countries;
• High-speed railway network, which brings most major European cities within a 4 hours train-trip range (France's TGV hold the world record and its top speed at use is 320 km/h );
• 12,000 km of roads & 700 km of highways.

Video Pascal Brier, Deputy Managing Director, Altran:

• Europe 's biggest employment pool (5.6 Mn people of whom 25 % have managing positions).
• Paris ' 100 nationalities workforce has the highest per capita GDP of Europe
  (€ 41 000).
• FT's master of management 2008 survey ranks 4 Greater Paris business schools among the 10 best in the world (among them ESSEC, HEC and ESCP-EAP), furthermore it ranks Paris INSEAD's MBA second in Europe.
• Its engineering schools are world famous (Polytechnique, ENPC, Centrale, ENST...).

Video Valérie Pécresse, Minister for Higher Education and Research:

• 5th highest concentration of researchers in the world (over 130 000), noticeably more by inhabitant than the Silicon Valley ;
• R&D expenditures (€ 14.5 Bn) represent 7.5 % of Europe 's total investment in R&D;
• The best research tax credit in Europe

8 world-class clusters in high technologies:

Video Philippe Lagayette, Former Chairman, JP Morgan:

• World's largest and most liquid stock exchange group (total capitalization reached USD 30.3 Bn and USD 139 Bn worth of equity were traded daily at the end of 2007).
• Euronext has the largest market capitalization of the Eurozone;
• Greater Paris is Europe's second biggest location for venture capitals, second to London.
• Paris: an increasingly attractive place for Islamic Finance (download the document)

Video Benoit du Passage, Chairman, Jones Lang Lassalle France:

• Europe 's largest office market and the world's second (total surface reaches 50 Mn sq. m.).
• High-end office space is two times more affordable compared to London 's.
• Over 4 Mn sq.m. of commercial real estate were sold in 2007.

Triangle project:

• Hosts around 2 000 business-related events;
• Welcomes over 10 million business visitors every year.
• Biggest exhibition surface in the world.
• 3.3 % of the world's market shares for conferences (number one).

Video Eric Surdej, Managing Director, LG:

• Most affordable place in Europe for DSL and the area covered by optical fibre is the widest in Europe .
• All municipalities are connected to the ADSL 2+ network and 3G+ coverage is total.

Video Philippe Gas, Chairman, Disney:

• 45 million visitors in 2007: the most visited city in the world.
• The biggest number of tourist in Europe (153 000 rooms and 2 500 hotels).

Video Patrick Thomas, Chairman, Hermès:

Video Philippe Houzé, Chairman , Galeries Lafayette:

• WHO ranked France second for medical care.
• Ranks 1 st for lifestyle in the world (ahead New York ) according to Price Water House Coopers.
• Very low natural hazards : earthquakes, floods, tsunamis, …