Provence Alpes Cote d'Azur Economy

Paca is the 3rd richest French region and ranks 19th at the European scale. It is going well mainly thanks to its attractivity in terms of tourism; it is indeed one of the favourite worldwide tourist destination welcoming about 34 million tourists every year. The service sector is predominant and provides a good many jobs. In 2009, the region is admittedly affected by the global economic crisis but to a small extent however. It gets out while the going is good and is (after the Paris area) the 2nd French region as regards the setting up of companies. Paca’s motto and key of success could be summed up in one word: innovation.

If tourism is the driving force of Provence Alpes Cote d'Azur, the region is also in the lead when it comes to innovative sectors, such as high technology, biotechnology, microelectronics... Education for its part is well developed with various universities, international schools, preparatory classes for specialist university courses, engineering, business schools... All these institutes of higher learning help to contribute to the human capital needed on the region to meet current technological challenges.

• www.insee.fr/fr/regions/provence/default.asp?page=conjoncture/conjoncture.htm
• www.mder-paca.com/