JEDDAH: Business opportunities offered by France and especially Greater Paris was in focus at a meeting held here on Monday night. The visit of a high-level French delegation, led by Thierry Jacquillat, chairman of Greater Paris Investment Agency, added to the importance of the meeting held at the residence of French Consul General Christian Nakhle. Jacquillat said the purpose of the visit was to promote investments and partnerships between French and Saudi businessmen.

Jacquillat said France was the second largest destination for international investors after the United States and ranked among the top five most important economies of the world. “In France, the constitution guarantees freedom of movement for capital to all investors. That is the maximum guarantee a country can offer,” he said.

According to recent estimates, foreign direct investment (FDI) in France reached $114.3 billion in 2008. “France reached third place in the world for receiving FDI after US and China (including Hong Kong),” the consul general said. France became the leading FDI destination in Europe in 2008, receiving 20.5 percent of all European Union inward FDI, compared to 19.6 percent in 2007 and 14 percent in 2006.

Referring to Saudi investment interest in France, Nakhle said the investments were primarily in entertainment and real estate. As of 2005, Saudi Arabia ranked as the 30th largest investor in France, with total investments amounting to SR2.6 billion. In 2007, Saudi FDI amounted to SR165 million.

France is also the sixth largest trading partner of the Kingdom. Last year, French imports from the Kingdom stood at 2.9 billion euros, while its exports to Saudi Arabia were valued at 1.3 billion euros, Nakhle added. “France ranks third as a foreign investor with a total of $1.2 billion investments in 67 joint venture projects in the Kingdom.” He said to do a business in France was very easy. “Nowadays it takes only seven days on average to start a business in France.”

Jacquillat told the seminar, which was attended by Saudi businessmen, that France had a large, highly trained work force, with the third highest productivity and better flexibility thanks to recent reforms and a business-friendly environment promoted by President Nicolas Sarkozy.

While describing the importance of Greater Paris, Jacquillat said, Greater Paris had the highest GDP (gross domestic product) among the metropoles (500 billion euros). It even ranks ahead of states such as Denmark and Belgium. He also said it provided an easy access to more than 450 million consumers within 500 km of Paris.

Jacquillat said Greater Paris was also the European leader in innovation, research and development.

Another world-class asset that makes Paris a good place for investment is its major financial market. Paris is the second largest asset management center in the world after Boston and through the NYSE Euronext is by far the world’s leading stock exchange, he added.

Jacquillat said in 2008 Islamic finance took off in France. Two leading French banks, BNP Paribas and Societe Generale, have designed a range of Shariah-compliant products. A new taxation code was also adopted which is favorable to, among others, Murabaha and Sukuk operations.

Paris is also an attractive real estate market. With more than 50 million sq. meters, Paris has the largest market for office real estate in Europe and the second largest in the world, after Tokyo but before New York, he said. “Middle Eastern investors have been extremely active, increasing from less than a 3 percent market share in 2004 to more than 9 percent in 2007,” he added.

Jacquillat said Paris was also the world capital of conventions and trade fairs with 2,000 events every year. It is also the world capital of tourism with 44 million visitors each year.

“Greater Paris is the first location for the top 500 worldwide companies and second worldwide after Tokyo. It is also the favorite destination in the five coming years for international companies’ future locations,” he added.

The discussion between Christian de Boissieu, chief economist of the French prime minister and chairman of the Council of Economic Orientation of the French Government, and Perihan Al-Husseini, senior economist at the National Commercial Bank (NCB) focused on the current global financial crisis. They discussed how the global financial crisis had spread to local financial markets and how Saudi-French ties will be utilized to mitigate the impact of the global financial crisis.