'India Inc should start investing more in France'

NEW DELHI: To counter the tough global economic trend, France on Monday urged India Inc to invest in the world's fifth largest economy. This is also a testimony to the increasing respectability towards Indian entrepreneurs.
"Flow of Indian investment in France is very limited. French government wants more Indian investments in France," French Ambassador to India Jerome Bonnafont said.
At present, only 90 Indian companies have presence in France, employing about 6,000 people.As against this, 700 french firms have invested in India employing about 1.6 lakh people. Bonnafont said the presence of Indian companies in france is ''too small and should improve seeing the kind of opportunities France is providing to Indian entrepreneurs.
He said "France with its three million companies could be a good choice for Indian investors." He said a lot of family-owned companies are up for sale as the next generation of the family does not want to continue in the same business. This, he said, provide a good opportunity to Indian companies to acquire some of them to start their operations in France, which can serve not only the customers from France but also from other parts of EU and Africa.
"France is very open to the world and this is the key for our sustainable success as the world's leading economy," he said. In 2008, France attracted a foreign direct investments of $118 billion in 523 projects. The first three investing countries are USA, Germany and UK. Indian investments in France in 2008 were estimated at only 363 million euro. Bonnafont also wanted to attract more students from India to France. At present only 2000 Indian students are pursuing study in France as against 27,000 from China.