France is more and more attractive!

Two major French polling organization, IPSOS and KANTAR, have just published the results of two recurring consultations carried out to a fairly similar foreign group. Their conclusions are not very different. On the contrary, they concur to present a renewed French soft power in economics.

A presidential election effect

According IPSOS, “the image of France for foreign company leaders experimented a true turning point in the wake of Emmanuel Macron’ elections, and this momentum continued and increased during last year”. According to IPSOS, backed with figures, in 2016, only 27% of foreign companies have a positive image of France. They were 44% in 2017, and are now a majority (67%), which “is an impressive progress of 40 points in two years”.

A leader in cutting-edge technology

In a highly favourable context, IPSOS underlined that until now “investments are still timid”, 72% of foreign company leaders now say that “they are ready to invest even more in France in the coming years”.  In concrete terms, the cutting-edge technologies industry seems the most popular: 84% of them “reckon that France has the potential to become a world leader for the development of artificial intelligence, and to attract significant investments” in this industry. 

A interesting country for investments

According to foreign senior managers interviewed by KANTAR, a entity that always provides comments with raw data, France has reached the 2nd rank (after Germany and the United Kingdom) of “countries where it is interesting to invest for companies”. According to KANTAR, the trends is not decreasing: they were 15% in 2016, 32% in 2017 and 35% in 2018 to confirm this declaration. And to the question: “Would you say that France is an interesting choice for foreign investments?”, 74% said yes in 2016, and they are now 88%.

And KANTAR also noted that “since 2017, France’s soft power is greatly increasing”.