In his recent visit to China, Mr. Alain Vidalies, minis-ter of state for Transport, Marine Affairs and Fisheres,attached to the Minister of Ecllogy, Sustainable De-velopment and Energy of Trance, addressed the pressconference in Beijing that Paris will launch a new renovationprogram that features a totalinvestment of about 100 billionEuro. He welcomed Chinese companies to be involved intothe investment program.
Paris Renovation Program Welcomes ChineseInvestors
The Greater Paris Plan that aims to expand metro systemof Paris city area was announced by then French Prime Min-ister Jean-Marc Ayrault in March, 2013.
According to the renovation plan, Paris will invest 32billion Euro into public transport facility renovation, with 25billion used for renovating Paris metro facilities. About 200-mile metro lines will be newly constructed, raising the totalmileage t0 400 miles. Paris will build 72 more metro stationsand upgrade port and airport facilities. It also plans to invest7 billion Euro to expand and improve current highway trafficnetwork.
Paris also plans to build 3 commercial districts, 5 educa-tion mega centers and 9 logistics service centers. The large-scale city renovation plan willinclude building more than 100innovation-driven communities with multi-functional trans-port junctions, new-generation railway station and large hous-ing project.The new housing project will provide more than70,000 residential houses.The renovation program will makeParis a creatively and sustainably developing area.
The program will also improve Paris city traffic, pro-vide more convenience for commuters, create more jobs,meet housing needs and lead the economic development ofsurrounding areas.
Pierre SIMON, Chairman of Greater Paris InvestmentAgency, introduced "The Paris Renovation Program" involves7 industries, including transport, biological technology, high-tech(such as nanotechnology), smart city, aerospace, exhibi-tion, innovation-based industry (including costume design,computer game and luxury product). Ihese areas really wel-come Chinese investors.
"The GDP of Paris has taken up about 30% of FrenchGDP, so the economic development ofParis will have a signif-icant impact on France. The 'Paris Renovation Program' willinject new momentum to the French economy and furtherac-celerate the economic growth ofParis," he added. According to Mr. SIMON, the Paris Renovation Pro-gram includes investment in Paris transport infrastructureand municipal facility. "Besides the 27 billion Euro to beinvested by government in metro renovation, the rest capitalwill come from private business. We estimate that the totalinvestment of the program will reach about 100 billion Euro.So we share the same opinion with Chinese businessmen thatthis is the best time to invest in Paris," said Mr. SIMON.
He said that there are 12 French company representa-tives visiting China with Mr. Alain Vidalies and most ofthem come from real estate industry, including President ofParis Renovation Program Government Operation Company,President of France National Financial Institution and Real-estate Trust InvestmentCompany and President of FranceNational Financial Institution Trust Investment Bureau.These business leaders held meetings and discussions withleaders from Chinese state-owned and private business. ManyChinese companies expressed great interests into investmentopportunities in Paris.
However, Mr. SIMON said: "Now many Chinese pri-vate businesses and institutionalinvestors have shown interestsinto such projects. But there is still a long way to go before realinvestments are made. We have to make great efforts to makeit possible and welcome Chinese companies tojoin renovation of Paris."
Mr. SIMON also said that Chinese com-panies could invest in Paris through many ap-proaches, like through China-France Industryand Commerce Association, Paris Industryand Commerce Association and the CCPIT.He also gave suggestions about Chinese com-panies making investments in Paris, "Chinesecompanies shall be clear about the investmenttargets and choose the right investment model,finding a investment partner or independentinvestment.The companies shall be clear abouttheir investment purpose, to increase opera-tion revenue or do R&D in France. Second,the company shall be aware of the investmentcycle and any successful investment is basedon trusts among people, which need long-termefforts to develop."
Increase cooperation in transport,Pay attention to low-carbon Travel
Mr. Alain Vidalies travelled to Chengdu,Tianjin and Beijing during his visit. He toldChina's Foreign Frade, "This visit has seen acooperation agreement framework between bothour countries. It will formulate the direction ofour cooperation in aerospace, marine and landtransport. China has agreed with such move."
Mr. Alain Vidalies attended the openingceremony of Michelin Challenge Bibendum,visited Tianjin Airbus Assembly line, talkedwith teachers and students of China-EuropeAerospace Engineer Institute, CAUC. Hethinks that through these visits he has been ex-posed to China-France cooperation in industryand economy. He also held talks with senior officials ofChina, including Mr. Yang Chuantang, Min-ister of Transport, Mr. Li Jiaxiang, Director ofCivil Aviation Administration of China, andMr. Lu Dongfu, director of National RailwayBureau. He said, "2014 marks the fifth anniver-sary of the establishment of diplomatic relation-ship between China and France."
France and China have state-of-the-arttechnology of high-speed railway and bothcountries have launched cooperation in this area.Mr. Vidalies said, "France and China lead thework in terms of high-speed railway technologyand have bright future for cooperation in thisarea. Many countries have established their ownhigh-speed railway network, but there are stillno high-speed railway in certain continents. Sowe shall not only expand bilateral cooperationbut also work together to explore markets inthe third country. We have not such coopera-tion experiences, but have basically agreed withthe fundamental principle. We will explain inwhat conditions shall both countries promotethe cooperation." He introduced some innova-tion technologies that France have developed inhigh-speed railway, hoping Chinese companieswill introduce some of these technologies. Oneis the low-cost power cable developed by Frenchcompanies, and the other is using old tier tomake cushion ofhigh-speed railway.
"I am very pleased about our China visit,which is very fruitful. We have discussed andconfirmed the way ofimplement cooperationand cooperation costs," He told China's ForeignTrade.
France is preparing the UN ClimateChange Convention to be held in Paris Dec.2015. Mr. Vidalies said that the theme of theconvention will be transport and low-carbontravel. He said that the Sino-U.S. joint decla-ration againstclimate change shows that bothChina and U.S. is actively tackling the climatechange issue and he hopes more countries couldbe involved in such campaign.
"We both know that dealing with climatechange is a responsibility for all of us. The inter-national agreement that involving all countriesis the best efficient way for us to address theclimate change issue. The goal of the Paris Con-vention is to reach a new agreement and this isrelated the destiny of the earth. It requires fullinvolvement of major countries of the world,to spread low-carbon way oflife is not a hardchoice but our un-shirking responsibility," hecommented.
Mr. Vidalies also mentioned that the smarttraffic international forum will be held in Bor-deaux,in October of2015.