2009-06-18 11:57:02 -

Nearly 1,000 participants took part in La Baule’s 7 th World Investment Conference (WIC), which was held on June 3-5 th .
This year’s conference focused on the theme of “Investing in Global Cities”. Politicians, entrepreneurs and investors convened in the French coastal town to address the role of cities in “times of adversity”. Patrick Gounelle, co-chairman of Europe + Foundation and Global Managing Partner of Ernst & Young EMEA, emphasized that cities were a great source of ideas and positive energy in order to drive investments and fuel the economy.


Ernst & Young’s annual Attractiveness Survey stressed the changing patterns of foreign direct investment in times of recession as well as the emergence of new location selection criteria and models, whether temporary measures

or longer strategic moves.

This year’s La Baule-WIC attracted a record number of international participants including the first ever Chinese delegation, as well as a very significant delegation from South America. Seven South American nations announced together the launch of a new common investment vehicle in order to attract investors from around the world.

At the inaugural dinner on June 3 rd , French Minister of Economy, Industry and Employment Christine Lagarde shared with participants details of the national government economic rescue plan and her faith in the return to a healthy economy. Alongside with Lagarde, Hungarian Minister for National Development and Economy Istvan Varga and Tunisian Minister for Industry and SMEs Afif Chelbi also took part in the dinner.

Amongst other key speakers at La Baule-WIC were urban sociologist Saskia Sassen, architect David Fisher, Chairman of France’s Council of Economic Analysis Christian de Boissieu and Le Louvre Museum Director Henri Loyrette.

Workshop discussions included a presentation by UK Minister for the Olympics Tessa Jowell on how London is being shaped for the 2012 Games. Other cities were highlighted such as Cape Town, Stockholm, Madrid and Abu Dhabi.

In parallel to La Baule-WIC, the three associated conferences – Transatlantic Green Platform, Global Tech Showcase and Brainpower Forum, brought together over 100 fast-growing start-ups in IT and technology.
Participants made concrete recommendations to reinforce transatlantic cooperation, particularly ahead of the Copenhagen global conference in December. These proposals, which will be submitted to the European Commission, aim at boosting Europe’s market access to American innovative companies.

This year again, the Europe+ Foundation, organiser of La Baule-WIC, has discerned the 2009 Best Investment Awards in Europe to four Winners.



- Invest in Spain for Unibail-Rodamco’s real estate and green building investment project
- Malta for IT investment project Smart City Dubai
- Porto Region (Portugal) for Living Plan IT project
- Tunisia for a telecommunication project developed in cooperation with Altran and TelNet.

About Europe+ Foundation


The Europe+ Foundation is an independent platform that supplies analytical tools and governance guidance to promote the attractiveness and competitiveness of the European Union, its Member States and regions. The Foundation’s aim is to take the conclusions of WIC working groups further and ensure follow-up of recommendations addressed to the European Commission and the European Parliament, as well as to governments and Member States. “Europe+ is a dynamic platform founded on the exchange of best practices, the diversity of its members, the multiplicity of its experiences and public-private partnerships. We are neither a lobby associated with particular interest groups, nor a traditional think tank working on general or purely theoretical positions,” remind the two Co-Chairmen of the Foundation. The high-level think tank of Europe+ gathers more than a hundred international personalities drawn from the world of business, government and academia.


Press contact:Publicis ConsultantsVilizara Lazarova+

33 1 57 32 86 46 vilizara@publicis.fr : mailto:vilizara@publicis.fr