Marseille-Provence in Shanghai

From October 16 to 23, Provence Promotion will be in Shanghai, taking with it a bagful of ideas and numerous leads to follow up.

As part of the Marseille-Provence delegation, alongside its economic partners from both the public and private sectors, Provence Promotion will be providing proof of our competitiveness on the world scale and making contacts with prospective inward investors.

Trade fair, technological exhibition, artistic extravaganza, the Universal Exposition in Shanghai is a showcase for the world’s know-how in the fields of gastronomy, luxury goods, fashion and art, but above all technological innovation.

With its theme of “Better City, Better Life”, the scale of Expo 2010 Shanghai China sets the trend for what future editions will be like in terms of the number of countries present (236, of which 35 from Europe) and exchanges of new ideas about the environment and society.

The 100 million visitors expected to attend the Universal Exhibition will set a new record, making it a unique opportunity to promote our region’s many assets, introduce our most successful companies and present our key projects. A unique opportunity Marseille-Provence intends to seize.

As an added spotlight, the “Marseille-Provence in Shanghai Days” are being held from October 16 to 20 with a number of regional institutions attending, including Marseilles City Council, the PACA Region, Marseille-Provence International Chamber of Commerce, Euroméditerranée Development Corporation, Marseilles Port Authority (GPMM), the Tourist Office, Euromed Management, local notaries’ representative bodies and ITER.

The aims are to highlight the opportunities for economic cooperation with China and show that our region has everything to offer Chinese companies expanding internationally, thereby underscoring our position as the logical gateway to the markets of southern Europe and the Mediterranean.
Provence Promotion expressed its wish to be part of the delegation and, in particular, to be involved in the day of conferences being held at the France pavilion on October 19. This wish is now realized and the agency will be co-organizing the event with Euroméditerranée.

With a wealth of experience on both sides, the two co-organizers have focused on the fields in which the complementarity with China seems greatest.

Thus, in addition to providing an overview of the region’s economic landscape, these conferences will focus on four of Marseille-Provence’s areas of excellence:

•  Energy (ITER and EnR)
• Information and communication technologies
• Port operations and logistics
• Tourism and culture

The format will be that of a workshop, based on exchanges of thoughts and ideas and the input of concrete information. Several Chinese companies already established in Provence will be taking part.

With China fast becoming the world’s second most powerful economy –it showed outstanding growth again in 2009- and bearing in mind the huge scale of its market, this represents a strategic move.

For more information, please contact:
Eric Semerdjian, Director - Territorial Development
e-mail : e.semerdjian@provence-promotion.fr
Tél. : +33 (0)4 96 11 60 11