React.

In September 2020, Minister for the Economy, Finance and the Recovery, Bruno Le Maire presented a €100 billion recovery plan to support the economic activity and job creation.

The recovery plan is designed to sustain the growth potential of the French economy. It will support French companies and industries’ competitiveness and invest in technologies to maintain France among the most competitive and innovative countries. It will also pave the way for the French economy of 2030, which will be greener given the emergency to speed up the ecological transition.

The French government has embarked on a vast program of pro-business reforms, aimed at generating more solid, inclusive and sustainable growth. This national strategy is based around four themes:

• Encouraging investment and employment through a reduction in taxation

• Promoting professional mobility and valuing work

• Supporting corporate growth and innovation

• Transforming the State through administrative simplification and reform of the civil service

Grow.

France overtakes the UK as Europe’s top FDI destination

Investment in France rocketed 17% to 1,197 projects in 2019, with a 18.8% market share. For the first time, France attracted more FDI projects than any other country last year. France’s resurgence, which has gathered pace since 2017, is a direct result of President Macron’s reforms of labor laws and corporate taxation, which were well received by domestic and international investors alike.

France has all the assets to bounce back. Prior to the 2020 COVID crisis, France’s economy was resilient and was ranked the most attractive investment destination in Europe according to the 2019 Ernst&Young attractiveness survey.

EY’s research in April 2020 shows that executives making location decisions expect three megatrends to influence their European investment plans:

1. The acceleration of technology for cost reduction and customer access

2. A sharper focus on climate change and sustainability in investment decisions

3. A reconfiguration of supply chains, with a new mix of reshoring, nearshoring, and offshoring