The CROCIS (the Paris Region Observation Center for Trade, Industry and Services) has inventoried high potential business activities in the Greater Paris region.
The CROCIS has done a breakdown on the development of 19 promising technical and scientific sectors in the Greater Paris region. The sectors were selected according to two criteria. First, by their in Greater Paris region they play a significant economic role on an international scale. Second, the product or group of products they are organized around will have great strategic importance in the future due to sustained demand that should allow these sectors to expand their markets considerably, if not grow in terms of jobs and companies.
Overall appraisal
The greater Paris region houses about 40 percent of France's research potential and is home to two internationally competitive clusters (System@tic and Meditech Santé). In the aeronautics sector, the health care sector, and the optical technology research sector, the region is a leader at the European level or has the potential to become one. The CROCIS survey indicates that the greater Paris region is multi-specialized area well positioned in nearly all promising technical and scientific domains.
Which sectors ?
The greater Paris region is the primary French region hosting the aeronautics and space sector, contrary to what is generally believed. This is an already mature sector with a particularly developed research potential, but in which the number of people employed regionally has been on the decline for the past 10 years.
Promising sectors include computer services. Among the 50 leading French companies in terms of turnover, 41 have their headquarters in the greater Paris region. As for salaried payroll numbers in the software and application development sector, these grew by 142 percent from between 1994 and 2004, the highest increase among the sectors studied.
It should be added that two sectors seem promised for a bright future : biotechnology, supported by a number of organizations including the Réseau Innovation Biotechnologies program, and activities related to the environment.
Source : «Filières d'avenir : quelles sont les grandes filières techniques et scientifiques franciliennes ?» Les Cahiers du Crocis, n°17, August 2006. Available for download on the Chamber of Commerce website.