France secures jobs and investment from Amazon, Pfizer, Morgan Stanley By Reuters

Written by Sudip Kar-Gupta and Elizabeth Pineau

PARIS (Reuters) – France secured new jobs and investment from internet giant Amazon (NASDAQ:) and healthcare companies on Sunday. Pfizer (NYSE:) and Wall Street bank Morgan Stanley are preparing to host a major foreign investment summit.

President Emmanuel Macron on Monday launched the annual ‘Choose France’ event aimed at attracting large foreign companies. The 2023 edition attracted 13 billion euros ($14 billion) in foreign investment.

The French president said on Sunday that Amazon will announce additional investments of 1.2 billion euros that will create 3,000 new jobs in France, while healthcare companies Pfizer and AstraZeneca (NASDAQ:) will invest a total of $1 billion. Announced new investments.

French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire added that Morgan Stanley, which plans to increase its total headcount in Paris to 500 by 2025, will add 100 staff in the French capital.

Macron wants to further enhance Paris’ role as Europe’s leading business capital. France’s economy, the euro zone’s second-largest, is under pressure from a budget deficit and grew only 0.2% in the first quarter.

Competition with the US and China

Paris has traditionally lagged behind New York and London as a global financial hub. A closely watched Z/Yen survey released in March ranked New York as the world’s top financial center, with London in second place.

Le Maire said France and the European Union as a whole still had to do more to combat competition from China and the United States. French oil major TotalEnergies (EPA:) said last month it was considering a major stock market listing in New York. .

At an EU meeting in Brussels this week, Prime Minister Le Maire said he would reaffirm the need for a capital markets union to stimulate investment in new economic sectors such as renewable energy and artificial intelligence.

“Europe needs the money or it will continue to lose out to the US and China in terms of productivity.”

Le Maire added that he will host a meeting with CEOs from JPMorgan, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and Bank of America on Monday as part of a ‘Choose France’ event.

Prime Minister Le Maire said: “This roundtable will give us the opportunity to once again reach out to large financial investors, so that they can continue to set up sites in Paris and participate in the major industrial and economic projects that we are working with the President on. “We will make sure we can raise funds,” he said.

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