›  European integration has had a profound influence on the French economy

It has forced businesses to become more competitive not only in order to resist new challengers, but also to take advantage of the opportunities offered by such a huge market. In 1993 the principle of free movement of people, goods, services and capital came into effect with the establishment of the Single Market and opened up an economic area of 376 million consumers to French companies, benefiting all sectors of the national economy.

In industry, free movement of goods and capital has given French companies a significant boost and has resulted in higher investment rates, a high level of financial concentration and an increase in the number of subsidiaries of French companies established abroad.

The tertiary sector has also benefited from Europeanisation. Through aids and loans, the European Community has had a hand in modernising transport networks, co-funding major civil engineering projects such as the tunnel of Puymorens between France and Spain. Judicial and technical harmonisation and the advent of free competition have also helped bring the various modes of transport up to date. Freedom of movement has encouraged the growth of tourism in France, where four fifths of visitors are Europeans. It has also revitalised the banking and insurance sectors by spurring French companies to modernise and merge to stand up to foreign competition and attack other neighbouring markets.

›  Industry: leading industrial sectors in France

Construction and civil engineering

• Annual turnover: 93.15 billion euros.
• Five French groups (Bouygues, the leading European group, SGE-Vivendi, GTM-Entrepose, GTM group, Eiffage and Colas) rank among the top European construction firms.

Agri-foodstuffs

• Annual turnover: 111.9 billion euros.
• Workforce: 398,000.
• Leading sectors: meat and dairy production, cereals, confectionery, soft and alcoholic beverages. Leading exporter and second largest producer in the EU.
• Trade surplus: 7.17 billion euros.
• Number of firms: 4,200.
• Main groups: Danone, Eridania Beghin-Say, Nestlé France, Besnier, Pernod-Ricard, Seita, Sodiaal, Socopa and Bongrain.

Chemicals

• Annual turnover: 70.126 billion euros.
• Workforce: 236,500.
• Main firms: Air Liquide, Rhodia, Hutchinson, Atofina.

Fashion and luxury goods

• This sector includes haute couture, jewellery, luxury leather goods, perfumes, cosmetics and fine glassware.
• Main groups: Yves-Saint-Laurent, Vuitton, Chanel, Baccarat, Hermès, Jean-Paul Gaultier, Dior, Cartier, etc.
• Turnover: 31.4 billion euros.
• Workforce: 222,000.

Pharmaceuticals

• Annual turnover: 28.4 billion euros.
• Workforce: 94,500.
• World’s fourth largest producer and fifth largest exporter.
• Main firms: Sanofi-Synthélabo, Biomérieux-Pierre Fabre, Servier and Aventis-Pharma (merger of Rhône-Poulenc and the German firm Hoechst).

Automobile industry

• Annual turnover: 95.22 billion euros.
• France is the world’s third largest exporter of cars and, in 1999, had a surplus on its trade in this sector of 8.22 billion euros.
• PSA (Peugeot-Citroën) and Renault are the two main groups in the sector.
• 5,322,000 vehicles were produced in 2000.
• Workforce: 271,920.

Materials processing (steel, aluminium, glass, plastics, rubber)

• Annual turnover: 42.79 billion euros

Among the main firms are the Usinor group (steel), Péchiney (aluminium) and Saint Gobain, the world’s largest producer and second largest exporter of glass; Plastic Omnium and Sommier Allibert are the two French leaders in plastics processing and Michelin is the world’s leading tyre manufacturer.

Telecommunications and information and communication technology

• Annual turnover: 67.23 billion euros.
• 34 million telephone lines.
• 100 million phone cards purchased in 1998.
• France Telecom has 49.5% of the market, Cegetel-SFR 37.5% and Bouygues Telecom 13%.
• There has been a sharp rise in the number of mobile phones, with 19 million subscribers in January 2000.
• Turnover: 28.356 billion euros

In the telecommunications sector, Alcatel is the fourth largest manufacturer of telecommunications equipment, and the world leader in transmission systems and submarine cable networks.

Digital television is represented by Thomson Multimédias, which produces digital television decoders.

Aerospace

• Annual turnover: 19.85 billion euros.
• Workforce: 95,300.

Main firms:
Matra Aérospatiale, (which is part of the European Airbus Industrie consortium), Dassault Aviation, Eurocopter France, Hispano-Suiza and Snecma.

Research and development

National R & D expenditure amounts to 28.66 billion euros i.e. 2.2% of GDP, the third highest in the OECD.

The public sector finances 46% of it and is responsible for operating (building maintenance, salaries and laboratory equipment) the major national research centres, which include the CNRS (all fields), INSERM (medicine), INRA (agronomy), etc.

Privately-financed research (54%) focuses on advanced technology sectors such as aerospace, pharmaceuticals, automobile construction, communications equipment and precision instruments. France ranks third among OECD countries for research, after Japan and the United States.

Transport

Densest in the world and longest in the EU with a total of 965,916 km of local, secondary and main roads and motorways, including 10,000 km of motorways (second in Europe).

While 76% of freight is carried by road, use of combined transport is sharply increasing.

On 1 January 2000, 31,770 km of track. France holds the world speed record (515 km/h) with its high-speed train (TGV), which runs on 1,281 kilometres of special track allowing trains in normal commercial operation to travel at 270 km/h or more.

Annual traffic: 295 million passengers on the main network, 71 million on the TGV network, 528 million on the Ile-de-France regional network and 133.8 billion tonnes of freight.

Each year over 100 million passengers and 4.8 billion tonne kilometres of freight are carried. 904 aircraft (planes and helicopters) fly under the French flag.

Paris airports:
747,500 annual commercial aircraft movements (2000), 76.6 million passengers (eighth in the world) and 1.7 million tonnes of freight and mail (2000).

Annually 210 ships (total tonnage of 4.1 million) transport 91.5 million tonnes of freight. France’s fleet ranks 28th in the world in tonnage.

Marseille is the largest port in France and on the Mediterranean, and the third largest in Europe, handling 95 million tonnes of goods.