Make Ile-de-France a “start-up region”: on the occasion of the Las Vegas Consumer Electronic Show, Paris Region presented new measures in favour of innovative businesses in the fields of artificial intelligence and robotics.

Generating growth and jobs, innovation and the development of territorial attractiveness are core regional priorities. Valérie Pécresse, the President of Paris Region, introduced three new measures at the Las Vegas CES, the leading Technology fair in the world. Over 300 French start-ups were attending the show, 40% of which are based in Ile-de-France.
They have a double goal: turn Ile-de-France into a start-up region, and the “Silicon Valley” of Europe.

A new financial solution for international companies with the Paris Region Starter Pack

The Paris Region Starter Pack is intended for all the start-ups or SMB of 5 to 250 employees with a turnover under $50M deciding to set up or establish a subsidiary in Ile-de-France. Objective: facilitate the siting of foreign technological firms, and grant them the treatment best suited for their project. The Pack materializes through a financial support up to an amount of €250,000 aiming to accompany development programs over a period of three years.
To benefit from it, companies will have to display a three-year development strategy, with a set financial plan, as well as a potential for job creation and development in France, contributing to the overall growth of Paris Region. The pack shall enable them to fund tangible and intangible investments, recruitments, strategic consultancy services, international expansion, patent registrations and extensions, as well as digital and ecological transformation.

The Innov'up Proto prototyping support opens up to foreign start-ups

For the first time, the Innov’up Proto call for proposals aiming to support pioneering prototype development by innovative young businesses shall be open to foreign start-ups and SMB wishing to establish themselves in Ile-de-France. In addition to a financial support, laureates will receive guidance and assistance by the Regional competitiveness cluster Cap Digital.
The call for projects is to be launched in the spring of 2018, and will enable 10 to 15 laureates to benefit from a maximum financial aid of up to €100,000, and to show their prototype at the Paris Region Smart Weeks in May 2019 (Vivatechnology, Futur.e.s). For 2018, the call for proposals shall be endowed with a minimum of €1M, and focused on A.I. and robotic technologies.

A €1M international competition geared towards start-ups

The $1.2M “IA 2018 Paris Region” challenge is intended both for Ile-de-France companies and all the firms wanting to take root in Ile-de-France.
This unprecedented competition illustrates a global ambition in the sector of artificial intelligence for the Ile-de-France ecosystem, notably in the fields of mobility and 4.0 industries (infrastructure, applications, platforms). It supplements the very strong involvement of Paris Region in the Digihall project, which deals with the creation of an international pole of reference for digital technology and artificial intelligence at Paris-Saclay(91).
Competition shall open in the spring of 2018, with a jury of top-tier experts to designate the winner(s) by September 2018.

Paris-Region innovation on a map

Paris Region Entreprises, the agency fostering Ile-de-France attractiveness, officially launched the website parisregionstartups.fr at the Consumer Electronic Show (CES) in Las Vegas. Designed as an attractiveness tool, it is destined to thoroughly display the Paris Region ecosystem (start-ups, third places, incubators...) on a single map.

Moody’s, the company specializing in the financial analysis and credit rating of businesses and economic players, praised the Ile-de-France Region for its sound financial position.

For the first time since 2011, Moody’s rated Paris Region, and gave it a very motivating Aa2/Prime-1. While the Aa2 label “rewards” the 7-billion-euro debt issuance program launched by the Region, the Prime-1 rate encourages its one-billion-euro program for the issuance of short-term marketable securities. Paris Region was thus graded at the same level as the French State. The Aa2/Prime-1 issuer rating granted to Paris Region reflects its strong operational performance, solid governance framework, and sound debt management practices, but also its undisputed access to financial markets, underlined Matthieu Collette, Moody’s’ vice-president and chief analyst for the area.

Paris Region, a steady issuer of green and responsible bonds

Hailed for its cautious budget strategy displaying credible long-term budgetary targets and prudent forecasts, Paris Region was also honoured for its sophisticated financial practices, and notably for steadily issuing green and responsible bonds, that allow the funding of numerous projects in Ile-de-France.

Valérie Pécresse, President of Paris Region, and Stéphane Salini, Vice-President for Finance and Public Policies Evaluation, greeted this rating as an acknowledgement of the first results triggered by the 2016 cost-cutting plan implemented in a break with former years. In particular, Paris Region reduced its operating expenditures by 3.7% in 2016 (saving more than €250M over two years).

Moody’s’ competitor Standard & Poor’s already raised the rating of Paris Region from “negative” to “AA” last May.

Brussels honoured Ile-de-France as the EU region developing the most business-, entrepreneurship- and innovation-friendly policies.

Paris Region received the European Entrepreneurial Region (EER) 2018 Award from a jury presided by the European Committee for the Regions President Markku Markkula, and gathering representatives of the committee, the European Commission, the European Parliament, and the European Economic and Social Committee.

The label distinguishes and rewards the regions of the European Union implementing the policies most favourable to entrepreneurship, innovation, and business. This distinction is fully in line with Paris Region President Valérie Pécresse’s will to turn Ile-de-France into a pro-business region. Among the three regions awarded – Ile-de-France, North-West Ireland and Central-Macedonia – Paris Region is the only French one.

This award demonstrates the European commitment of Paris Region. It rewards its outstanding entrepreneurial vitality, with 144,000 new companies created each year, as well as its strategy, built on four cornerstones:

• Invest to support attractiveness,
• Enhance the competitiveness of the regional economy,
• Stimulate entrepreneurship and innovation,
• Improve the interactions between the different players of entrepreneurship (universities, companies, start-ups, labs).

In this context, Paris Region supports the emergence of world-renowned clusters like Paris-Saclay, welcomes international entrepreneurs and investors, notably through the newly-launched “Choose Paris Region” single window, sustains the growth of the regional SMB network via the dedicated appliances PM'up and TP'up, boosts the digital transformation of the territory, and invests massively in public transit and in favour of the international lycées.

The four new recipients of the Blaise Pascal Excellence Research Chairs were selected amongst 18 applicants.

Created in 1996, the Blaise Pascal Excellence Research Chairs device, entirely funded by Paris Region for €760,000, enables the reception of high-level and internationally renowned foreign researchers from all disciplines in higher education institutions of Ile-de-France.

Paris Region, a steady issuer of green and responsible bonds

The four laureates chosen for the year 2017 are:

• Justine Cassell, internationally recognized American researcher, professor in language technology and human-computer interaction, whose topic of research has social applications, notably in the fields of health (communication with autistic children, services to the elderly…), is invited at the Institute for Intelligent Systems and Robots (ISIR) and the SMART Labex (Université Pierre-et-Marie-Curie, Sorbonne Group of Universities and Institutions).
• Tianhong Cui, US-based Chinese professor in mechanical engineering with an international career, whose research project focuses on urban sustainability and especially on nanosensors used in environmental science and biology (for instance to detect pollutants in water) for a more efficient management of the urban metabolism in the framework of “smart cities”, is invited at ESYCOM (Superior Engineering School in Electrotechnics and Electronics of Paris, Paris Est Group of Universities and Institutions).
• Patrick Haggard, English professor in cognitive neuroscience, one of the top world experts specialized in the study of the cognitive functions involved in the human will to act, an issue at the interface of philosophy, psychology, and cognitive neuroscience, whose project covers the connections between conscious awareness and voluntary action, is invited at the Cognitive Neuroscience Laboratory of the Ecole normale supérieure (PSL Group of Universities and Institutions).
• Mihai Datcu, Romanian researcher with an international reputation in the field of Data science for the observation of the Earth, whose project explores the new challenges raised by automatic learning for very heterogeneous data, is logically invited at the Centre d’études et de recherche en informatique (CEDRIC) of the National Conservatory of Arts and Crafts (HESAM Group of Universities and Institutions).

Ile-de-France is the leading French region for the reception of foreign students. Since September, the new House of Ile-de-France has been accommodating students and researchers within the International University Campus in Paris.

With its 142 rooms, the House of Ile-de-France was settled south of the park, along the Boulevard Périphérique, between the Houses of Cambodia and Lebanon. It contributes to widen the student-housing offer of the international campus and reflects the common will of Paris Region and the Cité Internationale Universitaire de Paris to actively participate to the international attractiveness of the territory and of its universities, in a very competitive global context, to attract students and researchers.

Over time, the Villages Nature complex will offer 2,450 accommodations on a 642-acre site.

A pioneering building

Financed by the Region, which also was the public contracting authority on the project, for an amount of 21,640,000 €, the House meets the environmental goal ZEN, for Zero Energy. The House of Ile-de-France is actually the first energy-plus multi-dwelling building relying only on solar energy that was built in France with a thermal storage system so big: two thermal stores of 2754 cubic feet each. It is also the first fulfilment of the large Cité2025 development project of Campus. Pursuing its humanist purpose, the International Campus increases its bed capacity by creating 10 new houses (1,800 new rooms), and adapts to the expectations of 21st-century international students by updating its infrastructures and services until 2025, the year of its 100th anniversary. The development project stems from a strong ambition: to transform the Cité Internationale into an innovating reference campus for international students and researchers.

In order to address an ever-growing demand, Paris Region is to double the number of places in the international sections of Ile-de-France high schools by 2020.

Offering 20,000 places in the international sections and bilingual classes of the public high schools of Ile-de-France by 2020: that objective was reminded by Valérie Pécresse, the President of Paris Region, during a visit at the Lycée Jean-Pierre-Vernant in Sèvres (Hauts-de-Seine) with Jean-Michel Blanquer, the Minister for Education. In 2016, Paris Region had 46 international sections representing around 10,000 places, and 46 bilingual sections or classes. In comparison, London offers 16,702 places, and Brussels around 25,000.

We anchor the project of a bilingual and multilingual region, open to the world. For all the sections, demand is very strong, and exceeds supply. These sections are very attractive, and extremely selective. We need to create more places. Our wish, in a coordinate strategy with the State, is to accelerate the development of these classes, and to boost the private on-contract sector in Ile-de-France, underlined Valérie Pécresse.

With 16 international schools, Ile-de-France stands before Frankfort (4), or Berlin (13). Paris Region already has 6 international public high schools, and 3 more will shortly open in Courbevoie (Hauts-de-Seine) in 2018, Saclay (Essonne) in 2021, and Vincennes (Val-de-Marne) in 2022.

Paris Region launched an unprecedented €5M investment plan over ten years to welcome 22,000 new students, and renovate 6.5 million square-meters of space in existing high schools.

Reinforce and reaffirm its position as the number one region on the international stage: this is the objective of the #Leader economic strategy launched by Paris Region.

The economic assessment

Ile-de-France has many assets: it is the leading European region in terms of wealth, before Lombardy (Italy) and Greater London (Great-Britain), and it can rely on a major international financial centre as well as 1.3 million businesses of all sizes. Yet it faces difficulties, which are as many challenges: a fall in industrial employment (-26% between 1998 and 2013), recruitment problems in some sectors, a negative migratory balance, and an unemployment rate at 8.5% of the labor force, especially among young people. The potential of our region has obviously been largely underutilized, and the new regional strategy intends to take full measure of the ongoing transformations. In view of this, Paris Region offers to redefine its development action lines over the next five years, for instance in regard to business support and consulting.

The main thrusts

The #Leader strategy the Region defined for the 2017-2021 period is based on four pillars:

• Invest in attractiveness
  Attract businesses to Ile-de-France, increase the internationalization of our local businesses, and support the development of internationally identified “Project Hotbeds”, like Grand Roissy or Saclay.
• Boost competitiveness
  Focus on strategic value chains (aeronautics, digital environment, tourism…), become a global hub for business-friendly innovation, and grow the SMEs.
• Develop entrepreneurial spirit and innovate across all the territories
  Support the creation of start-ups, anticipate the evolution of corporate needs in terms of skills and recruitment, favor the economic diversity of Paris Region, and galvanize economy in the rural and underprivileged areas.
• Act collectively at the service of businesses, employment, and the territories
  Coordinate the actors and governance of economic action, maximize the leverage effect of partnership-oriented interventions, steer, track, and assess the economic action

  Objective: leading region in the world

  The outlines of our collective ambition are clear: release and encourage the outstanding growth, employment and innovation potential existing in Ile-de-France, so that it becomes the World’s leading region by 2020. To achieve this goal, Paris Region is to bring together all its expertise and become the invaluable partner for all actors of the economy (companies, public entities, associations, universities and Grandes Ecoles) on its territory.

Inaugurated last October 10th, this new holiday village located close to Disneyland Paris is to enhance the touristic drawing power of the Eastern part of Ile-de-France.

This is a new catalyst for Ile-de-France tourism. A joint project carried out by Euro Disney and Center Parcs, Villages Nature opened its doors in Seine-et-Marne, near Disneyland Paris. It is targeted to attract 900,000 visitors a year to the 1,610 flats and cottages of the village, which also includes Europe’s largest water-park, Aqualagon. The new leisure destination is to lead to the creation of 4,500 direct and indirect jobs. Paris Region invested €15M in order to accompany this project in terms of transport, energy, tourism, and schooling.

Over time, the Villages Nature complex will offer 2,450 accommodations on a 642-acre site.

Recognizable by their purple jackets, they were deployed between December 17th and 31st to the major tourist sites of Ile¬-de-¬France. Their mission: to make the tourists want to come and visit, and to come back again.

Valérie Pécresse, President of the Ile-de-France Region, launched the new “Volunteers for Tourism” plan last December 13th, in the context of their dedicated training day. In order to improve the quality of our reception, at a time when the Ile-de-France tourism sector suffers a crisis, the president of the regional executive decided to deploy volunteers, recognizable on the field by their purple jackets, to the major tourist sites of the Region: Montmartre, the Boulevard Haussmann department stores, the Eiffel Tower, the Louvre museum, the Parisian airports, Disneyland Paris… As well as in Vincennes, Versailles, Saint-Germain-en-Laye, Saint-Denis, Auvers-sur-Oise, Fontainebleau, or Provins… from December 17th to 31st.

The launching of this ‘Volunteers for Tourism’ device is the first stage of the sectoral recovery plan I wished to implement for our destination, emphasized Valérie Pécresse. The quality of our reception strategies, of the information and services we provide to visitors coming to Paris and Ile-de-France, plays a major role in the tourist attractiveness of the territory. We must do everything in our power to attract new tourists and retain those who wish to come back.

Almost 100 volunteers were trained by teams from the Regional Committee for Tourism (CRT) Paris Ile-de-France, and were assigned with the mission to inform and guide the French and foreign tourists visiting the region during the end-of-year season. The training focused on the behaviors that should be adopted to provide a top-quality welcoming of the tourists, through the role-playing of concrete cases (appropriate ways to welcome a French family, a young English couple…), during which trainers and trainees also tackled notions like proactivity, security, multiculturalism, and the personalization of the given answers. Frédéric Valletoux, president of the CRT Paris Ile-de-France explains: The CRT and its partnership network are totally committed to the implementation of the stimulus policy the Region develops for tourism. An expert in both reception and training, the CRT assists the tourism professionals so that they gain the best possible understanding of the way the tourists’ expectations evolve.

Anxious to participate in this ambitious service-oriented approach, many partners will get involved in this device and accompany it throughout its implementation: the Louvre, Viparis, Paris Aéroport, the Union du grand commerce de centre¬ ville (Galeries Lafayette and Printemps department stores), the Châteaux of Versailles and Fontainebleau, Le Bus Direct, SNCF Transilien, Vedettes de Paris, Disneyland Paris and several tourist offices (Montmartre, Vincennes, Clichy, Issy-les-Moulineaux, Boulogne-Billancourt, Versailles, Saint-Germain-en-Laye, Plaine Commune¬ Grand Paris, Fontainebleau, Provins, Roissy-¬en-France, Enghien-¬les¬-Bains, Auvers¬-sur¬-Oise, Pays des Impressionnistes, Marne et Gondoire…). Tricots Saint James is yet another partner, which participates in the volunteers’ equipment. Agnès Vigneron, director of the Galeries Lafayette Haussmann, declared: At a time when supporting our tourist industry is more than ever essential, we are very pleased to support this promising action by making our flagship Boulevard Haussmann store available to the volunteers. Jean--Luc Martinez, chief executive of the Louvre museum, also attested: The Louvre goes into action by providing an optimal reception, so that the tourists enjoy a moment of wonder when visiting Paris and the Louvre museum. For the Château de Versailles, its president Catherine Pégard said: The many-years-old attractiveness of the Versailles palace to visitors coming from all over the world requires a quality of reception and service that meets the high standards of a site epitomizing the French art de vivre. The ‘Volunteers for Tourism’ will help the visitors in finding their bearings as soon as they arrive in Versailles, and provide them with the information they need. They will therefore strengthen the existing reception framework of the Château de Versailles.

This first experiment shall be repeated on a wider scale, during tourist season, as of Spring 2017. In the 9 first months of 2016, against a background of terror attacks, social movements, and bad weather conditions, and despite the holding of the Euro 2016, the number of overnight stays in hotels dropped by 10.6% – ¬14.4% for international tourists, and 5.3% for the French tourists – which represents the largest decrease since 2010.

Simplifying the establishment of international companies in Ile-de-France: such is the tenet of the “single window” that was launched November 3rd by the Ile-de-France Region, the City of Paris, the Métropole du Grand Paris, the Paris-Ile-de-France Chamber of Commerce and Industry, and Business France.

The battle the Region needs to focus all its energy on is the battle for attractiveness, because let’s never forget that what is at issue beyond this is the crucial battle. It is with these words that Valérie Pécresse, the president of the Regional Council, welcomed the launch of “Choose Paris Region” on November 3rd.

This single window was designed for foreign investors thanks to the pooling of resources from the Region (via its associated body “Paris Region Entreprises”), the City of Paris, the Métropole du Grand Paris (Greater Paris), the Paris Ile-de-France Chamber of Commerce and Industry, and Business France.

A single window, who for ?

“Choose Paris Region” is aimed at all the foreign companies that consider settling in Ile-de-France and provides them with a global support.

Some ten permanent staff members will be working at the premises of Paris Region Entreprise, in the 19th arrondissement of Paris, to answer the investors’ inquiries.

A single window, what for ?

• Inform about the assets of France (economy, talents, school supply) ;
• Help understand the regulatory, fiscal, and social framework ;
• Ease the settlement procedures.

The single window tackles all the questions the companies might have, including those regarding their employees’ reception (residence permit, employment of spouses, and educational questions, notably by directing them toward the international classes in Ile-de-France).

What role does the Region play in this single window ?

• On June 8th, at the “Welcome to Europe” conference, the Region brought together the people of goodwill from the City of Paris, Euronext, and Paris Europlace to step up the international readability of the capital region ;
• The Region targets an unprecedented increase of the number of international high schools on its territory. Its goal? Make Ile-de-France a bilingual region ;
• Implementing a regional plan to revive tourism ;
• Prospecting abroad and meeting foreign investors (Korea, Japan, USA…) ;
• The Region granted a plus 137 million budget for innovation in 2016.

Located between the towns of Noisy-le-Grand (93) and Bry-sur-Marne (94), The Lycée international de l’Est parisien opened its doors upon return from the last summer holidays. It is to welcome 1,200 students in five international sections by 2019.

Noisy-le-Grand and Bry-sur-Marne waited for 14 years and it finally happened: the Lycée International de l’Est parisien was inaugurated by Valérie Pécresse, the President of the Ile-de-France Region, on September 1st. For a start, 175 Year 11 students, including 50 boarders, will be trained from this year on in the five international sections the school offers: Arabic, Chinese, Brazilian, and two British/American classes. The school shall reach its cruising speed progressively, to welcome a total of 1,200 students including 150 boarders by 2019.

The development of international high schools is a natural part of our international attractiveness strategy for the whole territory. This school symbolizes the direction I want to give to my action. It is the first secondary school of excellence to open in eastern Paris. And we won’t stop there! said the Regional Council President, who wishes to boost similar projects, with the goal of one high quality international lycée per Department.

Nestled in a 3-hectare park also housing a landscaped fitness trail, a multi-sports ground, and several terraces surrounding the boarding school premises, with huge bay windows overlooking Paris, the six-storey school has classrooms, offices, a library, an auditorium and a cafeteria. The site was also very carefully secured with a network of 16 surveillance cameras around the school. The Lycée International de l’Est parisien is part of the new generation of 100%-digital schools and uses all the current digital learning mediums and paths like digital boards or video. The Region invested more than 56 million euro to build this innovating school.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) designated Paris as the host city for the 2024 Olympics and Paralympics. Paris Region is proud to welcome the competitions and athletes!

Hosting the Games for the benefit of all Ile-de-France residents. This is the goal of the Region, which committed to investing 209 million euro in public facilities. Among the facilities planned as part of the Paris 2024 bid are the Hill of Élancourt (Yvelines, €5m), the aquatic center of Saint-Denis (Seine-Saint-Denis, €10m), and the renovation of the Olympic Stadium (€10m)... Also, a new interchange will be built on highway A86 at the Pleyel crossroads, with a sound barrier protecting the future Olympic village, as well as pedestrian footbridges to ease the connections between L’Ile-Saint-Denis, the Cité du cinéma and the Stade de France at the A1 highway junction. Let’s also point that a 10 million euros envelope shall be dedicated to accessibility with a view to the Paralympics...

This represents more than the original 145 million target, because the Region needs to cover its deficit in sports infrastructures, said Valérie Pécresse, the President of the Regional Council, then adding: We really want to democratize sports, which is one of the priorities of our policy, and to reduce territorial inequalities.

GlobalCapital, an information website specialized in international financial markets, just awarded his trophies for Best public issuer of green and responsible bonds and Best bond issue of the year in the public sector to the Ile-de-France Region on September 6th in Amsterdam, during the Euromoney/GlobalCapital Sustainable & Responsible Capital Markets Forum, a conference dedicated to responsible finance.

Indeed, last june, the Ile-de-France Region raised an aggregate 650 M€ for a period of nine years, at a 0.59% rate. The transaction met great success, and a strong appetite among investors, reflecting both the signature quality of the Region and the credibility of its green and socially responsible investments strategy.

The Ile-de-France Region is proud of this acknowledgement, which rewards the hard work and daily efforts implemented to fight global warming.

The laureates were voted on by a panel of investors, issuers, banks and other players of the debt capital markets in July 2016, at an international scale. The Region was awarded alongside recognised and innovating players like the World Bank, the EIB, and Apple.