On January 21, French President Macron invited 150 leaders of multinational corporations to the Palace of Versailles again to hold the 2nd “Choose France” summit, in a bid to channel more investments into France from all over the world. French dignitaries such as President Macron and Prime Minister Philip attended the summit. Bluestar Chairman and Party Secretary Hao Zhigang and Bluestar Director and Chief Strategy Officer Oliver were invited to attend the summit.
In 2018, 1,300 investment projects in France were undertaken by enterprises from all over the world, breaking the historical record. At the first “Choose France” summit held in 2018, major multinational enterprises announced multi-year investment projects worth 3.5 billion euros, benefiting France’s finance, transportation, manufacturing, and chemical industry and injecting great impetus to the economic development of the country.
President Macron delivered a speech at the summit, saying that “Globalization has created unprecedented wealth, but globalization can continue only on the premise of harmonious development. Our economic model is based on capitalism and free trade. Only on the premise of balanced distribution of wealth can this economic model continue to develop steadily.”
Bluestar is an important foreign-funded enterprise in France. In 2006, it wholly purchased France’s Adisseo Company with 400 million euros, which was the first overseas acquisition in China’s fine chemical industry and also the largest transaction for Chinese enterprises to acquire French enterprises at that time. In 2007, Bluestar invested 390 million euros to acquire the silicone and sulfide business of Rhodia Company, France, improving the global silicone industry chain and becoming the world’s third largest silicone manufacturer. Since then, Bluestar has invested more than hundreds of millions of euros to support enterprises in France to upgrade their existing equipment and expand their production capacity so as to ensure a steady increase in strength and a sustained growth in operating performance and created more than 2,000 job opportunities for local areas. In the next 3-5 years, Bluestar will continue to increase its investment in French enterprises and further enhance its technological innovation capabilities and industrial application of new products and technologies.
During the summit, Hao Zhigang also held business talks with Hexcel, Roland Berger, and Quechen Silicon Chemistry. He also exchanged information on the investment in France and investment policy with the International Investment Ambassador of French Ministry of Europe and Foreign Affairs, for the purposes of further broadening the scope of cooperation with international enterprises, enhancing Bluestar’s influence in the world business, and seeking for diversified market opportunities for Bluestar’s international development. Hao said that Bluestar has paid attention to the development of the French economy, hoping that there will be more opportunities for cooperation and investment in the future to boost the internationalization of Bluestar while making positive contributions to the economic development of the two countries.