Second in regional employment after Paris, the Hauts-de-Seine area supports many influential, dynamic, and innovative French and foreign multinationals, with over 108,000 businesses (3,000 of which are foreign); a third of the Paris Region’s business headquarters; and 726,500 active employees, of whom 48.4 % are young.

The Hauts-de-Seine area is a true cradle of business, particularly in services (more than 10,400 companies were created in 2006, with 80% of these in the service sector). It is at the heart of 4 large-scale urban development projects (the « boucle de Seine », the « Hauts de Seine » center, the « Val de Seine » and the « Sud de Seine »).

 

To nurture and fortify such dynamic activity, the General Council of Hauts-de-Seine has placed competitiveness and attractiveness at the core of its economic strategy. It has formulated targeted actions in three principal areas:

 

- Economic development through planning that promotes, creates, broadens, and develops companies, particularly small business and industry (SMEs/SOHOs).  This strategy includes support for innovation (networking for economic actors and researchers; support for business clusters and for small business and industry), stimulation of regional business, and greater leveraging of tourism.

 

- Bolstered employment and professional formation through the Regional Implementation Plan for Boosting Employment (Programme Départemental d’Insertion et de Retour à l’Emploi, PDI-RE). This includes employment for beneficiaries of minimum social income (RMI) and single-parent allowances (API); strengthened support for individuals; and synching of labor supply and demand, notably through implementing targeted training programs.

 

- Pragmatic international policy based on the extension of partner networks and collaboration with international development specialists (e.g., the Departmental Export Committee, Comité départemental de l’exportation); support for exports; regional adoption of France’s International Business Internship program (Volontariat International en Entreprise, VIE); support for foreign investors’ regional location projects; and greater international cooperation.