The booming metropolis between Europe and Mediterranean

A strategic gateway between Europe, Africa and the Far East, today the Metropolis of Marseille is undergoing a profound transformation aimed at firmly establishing it as one of Southern Europe’s major economic centres and a Mediterranean basin open to the world.

Marseille is France and the Mediterranean’s biggest port and capital of Provence Alpes Côte d’Azur, the third biggest economic region in France. It therefore enjoys sustained growth and reflects the new dynamism generated by a voluntary strategy of economic and urban development, which is championed by the city’s Urban Authority.

In international competition, Marseille Provence Métropole firmly revels in its role as a Euro-Mediterranean metropolis, boosted by the rapid growth of a knowledge economy in which a superior tertiary sector and innovation play a major part and inspire new and ambitious projects.

Marseille Provence, an innovative metropolis

Innovation, which is instrumental in boosting the competitiveness of Marseille-based companies, is the other key ingredient in the development of the metropolis. A targeted policy to promote research, training and technological innovation is being championed by the City of Marseille and its Urban Authority. This policy is founded on a scientific and university infrastructure with immense potential: Marseille Provence is France’s second largest centre of state research with over 100,000 students. The Technopole of Marseille Château Gombert (for engineering sciences) and Marseille Luminy Science and Technology Park (for life sciences) are the spearheads of this policy. Furthermore, the French government has given official status to eight Competitiveness Clusters within the MPM territory, including the Secured Communicating Solutions cluster and the Optics and Photonics Pole, a just reward for this strategy and the investments made by the local community.

An ambitious policy of urban renewal

Given fresh impetus by the Euroméditerranée project, Marseille is pursuing and accelerating an ambitious policy of urban renewal across the entire metropolis. Around the tramway, public spaces are being renovated throughout the city centre, attracting over 400 new corporate brands over the last few years. Major cultural, commercial, hotel and leisure facilities are involved and a vast housing development programme is under way. Marseille is being transformed and taken to a whole new level. Driven by this dynamic, Marseille’s candidature as European Capital of Culture could not have come at at a better time.

A first-class setting for the Belle de Mai Media Park.