For the first time, the Paca ousted the Ile de France for the number of jobs created or supported by foreign investments in 2000. It is the "Sophia and Rousset effect".
The last statistics of the Datar reveal that for the first time, the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region holds the first place in the decisions of foreign investments in France in 2000. It succeeded to oust the Ile de France which is usually ahead. Last year, 70 projects of foreign investments, ensuring the creation or the maintenance on three years of 4 704 jobs were registered in the Paca. In the Ile de France, there were more projects (99 projects), however, the number of jobs at stake was a bit lower (3 889 jobs). The Paris region has even been beaten in this sector by the Lorraine (47 projects and 4 169 jobs).
On the Datar's website, it is explained that "the regions located near the economic centre of Europe attract a significant part of world mobile investments as in the past, in particular thanks to strategies linked to the development of their competence poles. However, the creation of jobs in 2000 seem to strengthen a polycentric network on the territory and to participate to the development of other regions, in particular the West and the South." This result, which proves that the trend changes, is both linked with the dynamism of Sophia Antipolis and its NTIC pole as well as the development of microelectronics on the Rousset pole near Aix and Marseille in the Bouches-du-Rhône.
In France, foreign investments in 2000 concerned 563 projects and enabled the creation or the maintenance of 35 400 jobs. The number of jobs is 11.4% higher compared to 1999 and the number of projects is 26% higher. It confirms a continuous trend for about a decade. It shows the important position of France as a host country for world mobile investments , notes once again the Datar.