The ITC industries cover a vast domain, which includes the electronics, information technology and telecommunications sectors and covers hardware, software and services. Several positive trends contribute to the vibrancy of foreign investment flows into these activities: rapid market growth linked to the constant appearance of

2nd leading country in Europe for IT qualifications

new products and applications; technological convergence accompanied by constant restructuring within the sector; the necessity for firms to become internationalized in order to finance their enormous R&D investments. In Europe alone, over 700 internationally mobile projects (not including acquisitions) were recorded each year between 2002 and 2005. France offers major advantages to attract these projects:

A sound industrial foundation

Particularly in the electronic components and communications equipment sectors, which employ 60,000 and 54,000 people respectively, which makes France one of the biggest ITC industry in Europe. French companies which are leaders in their field worldwide include: Thomson Multimédia (MPEG mp3), Alcatel, France Télécom, Gemplus, STMicroelectronics, Sagem, etc.

Real expertise in software and it services

In France, this sector employs 321 000 people and has a turnover of more than 40 billion euros. Major fields in which the French excel include : CAD/CAM (Dassault Systèmes Lectra), e-trading (GL Trade), natural language processing (Itesoft, AZIa software components), decision support (Business Objects), management software (Adonix…), software for consumer products (Thomson), special effects and video games (Infogrammes, Ubisoft, Visgames).

A high capacity for innovation

With, for example, 45,000 researchers working in ITC (particularly at France Télécom and in major public sector laboratories: GET, INRIA, CEA, CNRS), and major roles in several key innovations: ATM, GSM, UMTS, turbo codes for signal transmission. These strengths have enabled France to attract an important flow of

5 international clusters 45,000 research scientists working in telecommunications.

foreign investment projects, which have led to around 6,500 jobs being created annually for the past 10 years. Most of the top international groups in this sector have set up major operations in France. Foreign companies doing business in France include: Motorola, LG Electronics in the telecommunications equipment sector; Atmel, IBM, NXP, Freescale in the electronic components sector, where foreign companies account for 71.5% of total turnover in the French industry. Foreign investors are very present in R&D activities, and often with French partners. Microsoft, for example, has created a research laboratory with the French INRIA institute, to work on scientific computations; Hitachi is working with the INRIA institute and Eurocom, to develop 4th generation communications systems (IP, WIFI technology); Motorola has had its telecommunications center for excellence set up in Toulouse since 1967 (GSM, GPRS, UMTS); and LG Electronics has set up its European R&D center for mobile phone technology in Paris.

A large pool of qualified personnel

France is the 2nd leading country in Europe in terms of the number of people holding ITC qualifications. France boasts a strong network of first class higher education teaching establishments: Supelec, Ecole nationale
supérieure des télécommunications (National higher school of telecommunications studies) in Paris and Brittany, and the Institut national des télécommunications (National institute of telecommunications studies). Overall, these schools offer around forty different top level academic courses.