Who would relocate their aerospace business to France?
The country is trying to shake off its inward investment unfriendly image and welcome foreign firms Midi-Pyrénées Expansion, the French regional government agency for the Toulouse area, has a favourite trick for visiting Americans: it shows them productivity data for the region. Foreigners, especially Anglo-Saxons, have a view of French workers that is at odds with the truth. In fact, France ranks second to Canada in worker productivity league tables and is 25% more efficient than the neighbouring UK. Yet France does have, at best, an image problem, at worst serious structural problems with its labour market. Its growth is at a sluggish 1.2% for the second quarter, but more worrying for its politicians is an unemployment rate that has barely budged from 10% in July last year to 9.9% this July. Job creation is therefore a major government priority and attracting foreign investment is a cornerstone of this policy, says Olivier Poncet, director of Invest In France, an agency representing
