PARIS (Reuters) – France will begin looking for 50 industrial sites that can be offered turnkey, the government announced, in the hope of attracting French or foreign candidates like Tesla or Chinese groups.
The procedure, unprecedented because it provides public support to help prepare the land – decontamination, archaeological excavations, recycling of wasteland – will be presented Thursday at the 33rd National Intercommunality Convention in Orléans (Loiret).
“When I see an industrialist in my office, whether French or international, who is considering setting up factories in France (…) what makes the difference is: can I have hectares and can I have them quickly”, declared the Minister of Industry Roland Lescure during a press conference.
As part of France’s reindustrialization policy, the State wants to add 20,000 hectares of industrial surface area to the current 280,000 which cover the country, of which at least 2,000, or 10%, with the 50 new sites which should begin to be presented in early 2024.
France, which has also halved the administrative times required to start an industrial activity, hopes to continue the momentum of the Battery Valley, where it managed to attract the Sino-Japanese AESC Envision and the Taiwanese Prologium into the North.
The country is seeking in particular to convince the Californian electric car manufacturer Tesla, also courted by Spain, or the Chinese BYD to come and install their next European assembly plants on its soil.
Another Chinese car manufacturer, SAIC Motor, owner of MG Motor, also announced in July that it was “in the evaluation phase to choose a site within the European Union” to start production on the continent, without further details on the intended location.
The turnkey sites will range from 5 hectares, an area that is easier to find, to areas of 200 hectares that can accommodate a large factory.
“These lands are very, very rare, so they will be treated as a priority,” said a government source. “We need to be able to offer them to prospects, French or foreign, whether for battery projects, electric vehicles, etc., this is part of the anticipation work.”
(Reporting by Gilles Guillaume, edited by Kate Entringer)
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