In Paris, the countdown is on to July 26 when it begins hosting the 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games. The city has undergone a dramatic transformation in preparation for the event, extending metro lines and commuter trains, connecting venues with 55 kilometres of cycle line, and tackling a €1.4bn clean-up of the Seine to make it swimmable for the first time in a century. 

The Île-de-France government has been just as busy making sure the entire region benefits from its hosting of the world’s most iconic sporting event. Its vice president, Alexandra Dublanche, sat down with fDi at Mipim to explain how it is turning the games into an investment opportunity.

Q: Why are the Olympics an opportunity to improve the region’s investment activity? 

A: Over the past few years, all our energy has gone into benefitting as much as possible from the Olympics to show the world what we are capable of. Many countries outside Europe know us for culture and gastronomy, but not for innovation, technology, industry or leadership in artificial intelligence, quantum computing and decarbonised mobility. The Olympics is a unique occasion to benefit from the 15 million people that will attend, and the 4 billion people watching from their screens, to showcase what we can do in these areas. 

Q: But how does the Olympics showcase these capabilities? 

A: The Olympic village will be transformed into 3000 housing units that have been designed to not exceed 28 degrees Celsius for more than two days despite no air conditioning. The aquatic centre will be self-sufficient in energy and powered by one of France’s biggest [urban] solar farms, and its seats will be made from recycled plastic. The city will have a hydrogen taxi fleet of around 1000 during the Olympics and we will also experiment for the first time with eVTOL flying cars. So it will show there are business opportunities for sustainability and a new way of building a city in France and especially in the Paris Region.  

Q: How is the Île-de-France government taking advantage of this?

A: We’ve been targeting some fast-growing countries by going there to [entice] business leaders to come to the Olympics and visit local companies while here. Not Europe and the US that know us well and are already big [investors] here, but the ones further afield. We did it for the [2023] Rugby World Cup and we noticed that investments from the countries we targeted like South Africa increased. We’ve also organised industry-specific ‘explorer tours’ for foreign investors so they can look at things when coming here for the Olympics. All of this comes together as a promotion attractiveness strategy to attract as many jobs as possible for people living in the Paris Region.  

Q: Which countries are you targeting and has there been any early success? 

A: We’ve targeted countries that know us less from this perspective [of industry, technology and innovation] so India, where we visited last fall with the president of the Paris region Valérie Pécresse, plus Australia, New Zealand and Japan. They’re all pleased that we have come because we have not had such strong relations [at a regional level]. 

With successes it starts small of course. We brought some French companies with us to Japan in November and some contracts were signed. For example, one French SME signed an agreement with Toyota. In India we were more focused on AI, as we are trying to target [different types of] companies depending on the country. We also agreed to do start-up exchanges with Japan, and signed agreements in India for two universities to do student exchanges. In Australia, the state of Victoria also decided to open its investment promotion office in Paris [in 2023].

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