International Trade - Sounding Board
View from Abroad - Gael de Maisonneuve
How is Florida as a place to do business?
FRANCE
Gael de Maisonneuve
Consul General, Miami
“Florida is considered a very stable and attractive position for a lot of French businesses.
We have a lot of companies that use south Florida to travel throughout the Southern Hemisphere. We have a lot of medium and sometimes big companies in central Florida and north Florida that are basing themselves there. Those companies are usually very, very happy with the local setup. The universities are one very big factor that people forget about Florida. They’re all very good partners with French companies. All together we’ve got more than 450 companies. The total number of Florida jobs is 15,000. Florida still has too much of a beach image and not enough about the high tech. Sometimes we feel the promotion could be stronger, more positive and more university- and research-focused. South Florida has a unique cluster of (bilingual French-English) schools. That’s a big advantage for south Florida.”
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