France

Investment & 
Operational
Climate

France enthusiastically welcomes foreign investment and has a stable business climate that attracts investors from around the world. The French government devotes significant resources to attracting investment through policy incentives, marketing, overseas trade promotion offices, and investor support mechanisms. France has an educated population, first-rate universities, and a talented workforce. It has a modern business culture, sophisticated financial markets, a strong intellectual property rights regime, and an innovative commercial sector. The country is known for its world-class infrastructure, including high-speed passenger rail, many maritime ports, extensive roadway networks, a dense network of public transportation, and efficient intermodal connections. High-speed (3G/4G) telephony is nearly ubiquitous, and 5G is now available in large and many mid-sized metropolitan cities. The Macron administration’s draft pension reform bill was unveiled in January 2023. Following contentious debate in both houses of Parliament and facing uncertainty the bill would ultimately pass in the lower house, the government pushed through its pension reform legislation by decree on March 16 using article 49.3 of the French constitution, bypassing a vote in the lower house. In response, nationwide strikes carried out by labour unions are ongoing as of the drafting of this report (March 2023), and opposition parties in Parliament are expected to contest the pension reform bill at the Constitutional Council. While public opinion polls have shown that most French citizens oppose this pension reform, which raises the age of eligibility, the French government believes changes are necessary to place the national pension system on a firmer financial footing as life expectancy rises and as the ratio of workers to retirees decreases. Opponents dispute the need for urgency.