Invest in France Agency international Office

With a surface area of over 45 000 km², the Midi-Pyrénées is the largest region in France, and is bigger than Denmark or the Netherlands. It borders the Pyrénées mountains and Spain to the south, the Massif Central mountains to the northeast, the Aquitaine region and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and the Mediterranean sea to the east. The region has two international airports: Tarbes-Lourdes-Pyrénées and Toulouse-Blagnac, the 5th largest passenger traffic airport in France, which offers daily flights to most international destinations and half-hourly flights to Paris. The region has exceptionally dynamic population growth, with a growth rate that has been double the national average for the past six years.

The Midi-Pyrénées region offers several advantages. It is the European leader in civil avionics, and accounts for 50% of total French avionics subcontracting, with over 50 000 employees in this sector. It is also the world’s leading test center for avionic structures and materials. As well as Airbus (headquarters, design center, assembly halls), other avionics companies are located in the Midi-Pyrénées: Air France Industries, ATR, EADS Socata, Latécoère, Liebherr Aerospace, Lisi Aerospace, Ratier-Figeac, Rockwell Collins, Safran, Thales, etc.
In the field of aerospace, the Midi-Pyrénées region accounts for 12 000 jobs, which is half of the national total and a quarter of the European total. It is the leading region in Europe in terms of design and construction of aerospace systems: CNES (Toulouse Space Center), Thales Alenia Space and EADS Astrium, and over 150 other small and mid-sized companies.
In the information technology and communications sector (over 37 000 jobs), the region offers expertise that is recognized throughout Europe in the fields of real time information technology, image and signal transmission, man-machine interface, vocal recognition and electronics. It is France’s leading cluster for embedded electronics and the leading region after the Ile-de-France for software editing and IT services with companies such as Freescale Semiconducteurs, Siemens VDO Automotive, Thales, Actielec Technologies and Cap Gemini.

Along with the Aquitaine region, the Midi-Pyrénées was officially designated as the Aerospace, Space and Embedded Systems cluster. The region also hosts the official Cancer Bio Health cluster. A third cluster “AgriMip Innovation” has applied for official status in the agriculture and agro-industrial sectors. The agro-food sector accounts for 25 500 employees and 4 155 establishments in the region, with leading companies and products in the fruit processing sector (Andros, Materne Boin, Blue Whale), dairy (3A, Roquefort Société), meat products (preserved meats, crammed liver products), nutritional products (Nutrition & Santé).

The highly qualified population of the Midi-Pyrénées region makes it the leading region after the Ile-de-France in terms of the ratio of research scientists per head of population (12 790 research scientists) and the leading university hub after Paris. The Midi-Pyrénées is the n°1 region in France in terms of R&D activity (R&D expenditure as a percentage of regional GDP). In 2006, it was the 5th leading region in terms of FDI inflows, with 2 759 jobs created.