France is European foreign investment champion for the fourth consecutive year

International Business News  –  France topped the European list in terms of foreign investment attractiveness for the fourth consecutive year in 2022, according to an Ernst & Young report, Echo reported on May 11.

In terms of the number of foreign investment projects, France is far ahead of the UK (929) and Germany (832) with 1,259 new projects in 2022.

In terms of growth, against the backdrop of the Russia-Ukraine conflict and the energy crisis, the number of projects in France is growing despite a 3% year-on-year increase and most foreign companies in France announcing postponement of new investment projects, while other European countries are not, for example, the number of projects in the UK and Germany decreased by 6% and 1% respectively.

The report also points out the problems and challenges in France: the statistics are based on the number of projects rather than the quality or amount; 2/3 of the new projects are expansions rather than new construction projects, which do not contribute much to job creation; the competition from the U.S. and within Europe will become increasingly fierce.

Foreign investors generally see France’s strengths as clean energy based on nuclear power, quality of labor and quality of life, and its weaknesses as land costs and availability, environmental regulations and quality of training.