Economic development agency for the Rhône-Alpes region

Located in south-eastern France, adjacent to Italy and Switzerland, the Rhône Alpes region is an important European crossroads. It brings together eight départements: Ain, Ardèche, Drôme, Isère, Loire, Rhône, Savoie and Haute-Savoie. Its wide network of motorways  (1,326 km),  its 5 airports, its 264 railway stations and its 300 km of navigable waterways on the Rhône and the Saône, allow it to be perfectly connected to the whole world. The region accounts for close to 11% of French exports. With more than 6 million inhabitants and a GDP of 1,762, 379 million euros (French National Institute of Statistics [INSEE], August, 2007), the Rhône Alpes region distinguishes itself by its powerful, economic potential, its capacity for innovation and the numerous jobs that it creates. As part of the leading group of the great economic regions of Europe, this area, which ranks 2nd behind the Ile de France region, creates 10.4% of jobs, nationally.

The industrial sector fans out over a wide area of endeavour, including traditional sectors which have been able to adapt to technical progress (textiles, mechanics, chemicals, etc.), and innovative technology sectors (information technology, biotechnology, electronics, etc.). This important platform for the mechanical, pharmaceutical, chemical, agro-chemical, textile, plastic manufacturing, digital, nanotechnology, microelectronics and biotechnology sectors demonstrates that the region has several clusters of excellence.
20% of qualified French engineers are trained each year in the 35 grandes écoles (ISRA, INSA, etc.) and world-renowned institutions of higher education in the Lyon area.  The city has gained recognition due to its global cluster of competitiveness, the Lyon Biopôle. The  Rhône Alpes region is also home to 5 clusters of competitiveness elsewhere: Axelera (chemicals-environment), Lyon Urban Truck & Bus 2015 (transport), Techtera (technical textiles), Imaginove (digital entertainment) and Minalogic (microelectronics).

The Rhône region is characterised by several strong points. It is notably the foremost French region for chemical production. A leader in the production of silicone and phenols, the Rhône Alpes also produces all of France’s paracetamol and the majority of its PVC.
In the pharmaceutical industry, Rhodia, Atofina (chemicals), Aventis (vaccinations), Biomérieux (diagnostic products), Mérial (pharmaceuticals), Boiron (homeopathy) and Merck-Lipha (medications) figure among the flagship companies.
The agro-food industry (9,350 employees) is represented with the establishment of important company headquarters, including that of Blédina (a subsidiary of Danone).
There are more than 2,000 metallurgical companies with 60,000 employees. Renault Trucks, Bosch, Adg Camping Gaz, Koyo, Alcatel Cable and Fagor are the main ones. The mechanical sector (with more than 20,700 employees) includes Famer industrie (large-scale machining), ELCO (washing machines), Martin (machines for the paper industry) and AREVA (nuclear research).
Information technology (30,000 jobs), includes various services: consulting on computer systems, engineering and system integration and the video game sector which is particularly active in Lyon and which accounts for 30% of French developers and 15% of European video game turnover (with Atari and Electronic Art).

Companies with foreign capital in the Rhône Alpes region employ 11% of French workers  and have facilitated the creation of 4,179 jobs in 2006. Schwörer Haus, Ferropen, Easyjet, BPI, Wice Technologies and Gifas-Electric are on the list of the more recent investments and openings of 2007. This region comes second only to the Ile de France as the area where foreign companies are set up.