Invest in France Agency international Office

Pivotal platform on the Atlantic seaboard, the Aquitaine region opens onto Europe’s major dynamic axes and offers a modern transport network that is adapted to the demands of international competition. The region’s 6 airports, including 3 international airports, the Aquitaine high speed TGV rail link, the ports of Bordeaux and its motorway network favor transport and commercial exchanges. The extensive 1 600 km railway network means that Bordeaux is only 3 hours from Paris and 2 hours from Toulouse. In the next few years, with the launch of the South Europe Atlantic high speed train link, Bordeaux will be only 2 hours from Paris, 3 hours from Madrid and 1 hour and 45 minutes from Bilbao. The Aquitaine region already offers several multi-transport facilities including the ports of Bordeaux and Bayonne and multi-transport platforms. These sites remain competitive due to their modern management, which ensures that transporters are able to offer an optimal quality service to business (fluidity, reduced delivery timeframes, tracking of goods, security…).

The Aquitaine region offers a network of efficient and dynamic small and mid-sized companies that is bolstered by approximately 400 international groups. The diversity of key sectors in the Aquitaine region including aerospace, agro-food, laser, electronics, chemicals, and forestry, demonstrate the region’s wealth and potential in terms of innovation.
There are four officially registered clusters in the region, that group together industrial players, research scientists and educational establishments around innovative projects that encourage economic development and job creation.

• “Aerospace Valley”, aeronautics, space and embedded systems global cluster, in partnership with the Midi-Pyrénées region.
• “Route des lasers”, laser, photonics and applied  technology cluster.
• “Prod-Innov”, health products and innovative processes cluster.
• “Industries et Pin maritime du future”, maritime pine forestry cluster.

The Aquitaine region is France’s leading region in terms of R&D investment per head of population, and dedicates 7% of its total budget to research and innovation, which is a total of 55 million euros. The Aquitaine region is France’s 4th leading region in terms of business creations (ratio of the number of business creations in one year to the number of existing companies). Its dynamic nature is a result of an original, global and pragmatic development policy that favors and supports projects that lead to economic development and the creation of new jobs.
The region has 15 956 industrial establishments and approximately 400 foreign companies.