Olivier Cormier, president of Invest in France North America, speaks during a business luncheon in Atlanta April 19.  Photo by Gail Rockburne.

France’s emphasis on technological research and development and its well-developed infrastructure system would continue to attract foreign investors no matter who gets elected to its presidency, according to Olivier Cormier, president of the Invest in France North America agency.

Mr. Cormier was in Atlanta April 19 to give the keynote address at a business conference that encouraged Georgia companies to invest in France. The conference was organized by the Invest in France America office that is based in New York, the French Trade Commission in Atlanta and FedEx Corp., which was the principal sponsor of the event.

During the luncheon address, which was held three days before France’s first round of presidential elections, Mr. Cormier assured conference attendees that France would be a welcoming destination for foreign direct investment.

“In the past 20 years, there has been no correlation between the party of the French president and French business,” he said.

Since then, Nicolas Sarkozy of the center-to-right Union for Popular Movement, and Ségolène Royal of the Socialist Party received the most votes in a field of 12 candidates. The run-off will be held May 6.

Mr. Sarkozy has campaigned on a platform of shaking up France’s economy, which suffers a 10.2 percent unemployment rate. He made an unprecedented campaign trip to London where many French émigrés live in an effort to reverse France’s brain drain. During that visit, he said Paris needed more of the vitality that London enjoys.

One of the biggest critiques of the French market by American CEOs is the inflexibility of the country’s labor force, said Mr. Cormier.  French labor laws keep employees from being hired and fired as easily as in the United States.

“We know this is something we’ve got to improve, and I’m pretty sure we’re going to fix it,” Mr. Cormier said during the meeting. 

Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin tried to change the laws last spring, introducing the “first employment contract,” or CPE, that eliminated the need for employers to provide reasons for a young employee’s dismissal within his or her first two years on the job.

But the proposal met massive protests and public disapproval, never making it into French law.

Nonetheless, Mr. Cormier said that the French market, which represents 63 million residents and 78 million annual tourists, the country’s emphasis on technological research and development and its well-developed infrastructure system would continue to attract foreign investors.

More than 2,500 U.S. companies currently operate in France, employing more than 550,000 people, he said.

In addition to Mr. Cormier, other speakers at the day-long conference included Michael Filchock, vice president international of SunTrust Banks Inc.; Tim Hortin-Mastin, managing director France sales and marketing for FedEx Express; Robert Connan, senior commercial officer to France with the U.S. Commercial Service; Philippe Manteau, attorney with the Paris office of Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP; Frederic Le Roux with the Paris Region International Mission Enterprise and Claire McLeveighn, director of external affairs and international relations for the city of Atlanta.

Invest in France North America is planning some 20 like conferences in cities throughout North America in 2007.