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ONE of the big attractions of doing business with France is its geographical proximity. It takes just two hours to get from the centre of London to the heart of Paris by Eurostar – and what an agreeable way to travel! For companies located in the South East it is closer than many parts of the UK.
Another incentive of the market is the professional and dedicated UK Trade & Investment team based in Paris and around the regions. Its specialists have been busy analysing the latest French government initiatives to see how arising opportunities can be exploited by and might benefit UK businesses.
Isabelle Hurley, commercial officer for the ICT sector, highlights the digital plan, which is part of a larger development strategy to help to increase France’s competitiveness in the global market.
“The government aims to provide 100 per cent access to high-speed, affordable broadband throughout the nation,” she explains. “It wants to revolutionise the French ICT market, placing it among the leading countries in digital content by 2012. The government is optimistic that such a framework will accelerate France’s economic growth and provide new business opportunities for digital content service providers.
“First you have to study and understand the plan in order to identify what will be the best opportunities for UK companies. ICT spans many sectors, from security and financial services to e-universities and e-health. We want to engage with UK firms that have expertise in these areas so that they can bring the products that we need into the French market.
“We are developing networks of contacts in e-health and intend to stage an event in Paris in January or February next year. We did something similar last year and all of the participating companies were successful in finding a partner or customer in France. So now I am looking for UK firms that feel they have something to offer within the e-health sector. French companies are keen to learn from the UK experience.”
Laurent Faye, a commercial officer who leads on the biopharma sector in France, also believes UK companies should be alert to potential opportunities. “France’s pharmaceutical sector is the top European producer of medicines, with 220 production sites and 326 firms sharing a turnover of €47 billion in 2008,” he says. “Sanofi Aventis is one of the key players. Also companies like Servier, Pierre Fabre and Ipsen are investing huge amounts into R&D and are increasingly outsourcing and partnering with UK companies.”
THE HEART OF FRANCE
Business and economic power remain concentrated in Paris and the surrounding Ile-de-France. This region is home to more than half of French business executives, as well as being the world’s number-one tourist destination, with around 27 million visitors per year.
At around 12 million, its population now exceeds that of London and makes up roughly one fifth of the country’s total. The size of Paris/Ile-de-France is even more significant in economic terms, accounting for in excess of a quarter of GDP. However, as in the UK, there are regional clusters (see sector specifics) and the towns of Lille, Lyon, Marseille and Toulouse all have populations of more than one million.
Although geographically close, there are, however, many differences in etiquette, approach and business style when compared with the British way. The mode of greetings, manners and the (Continued on page 27...)
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