France’s government has unveiled plans to inject around €100bn into the country’s rail infrastructure by 2040. Announcing the investment package on February 24, prime minister Élisabeth Borne said it would be co-funded by the national government, state-owned rail company SNCF, the EU and local authorities.

The programme has two goals: to decarbonise the country’s transport system, and improve opportunities for those outside of city centres. In her speech, Ms Borne noted that a lack of mobility can mean “having to give up a job offer [or] missing out on training” and that better access to mobility can “revitalise certain territories.” She also said that 80% of rail investments benefit French companies and that the “strategy must benefit all French people, wherever they live, from small towns to large cities.” 

The changes will include more trains, a bigger railway network and better access to train stations.

Saudi plans $266m logistics park

The Jeddah Chamber of Commerce and Mawani, the Saudi Ports Authority, are partnering to establish an integrated logistics park in Al Khumrah along Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea coastline. In a February 26 statement announcing the plans, Mawani said the project will cost SR1bn ($266m) and will “boost its drive to position the Kingdom as a global logistics destination.” 

The logistics park will allow importers and exporters to stock multipurpose cargo, chilled and frozen goods, food commodities and fragile goods. It will be spread across three square kilometres and will create more than 10,000 direct and indirect jobs.

Hitachi sees opportunity in tech layoffs

Japan’s Hitachi sees a “big opportunity” in the mass layoff of tech workers by the likes of Amazon, Meta and Alphabet over the past year, its CEO Keiji Kojima has told the Financial Times (FT). Mr Kojima described recent job cuts by US tech giants as a “tailwind” for the conglomerate as it looks to expand its digital services.

“We want to hire really good people among those who were let go. Of course, we need to be very selective since the salaries for the people hired by those companies are generally high,” he said. The FT reported that Hitachi is planning a multi-billion dollar recruitment spree and is looking to acquire US cloud businesses.