Macron visits Toyota factory as company invests 300M

(22 Jan 2018) French President Emmanuel Macron visited a Toyota plant in northern France on Monday before heading to an evening business event at the chateau of Versailles. Japan's Toyota unveiled a 300 million euros plan (US$367 million) to enlarge its Onnaing car factory, creating 800 new jobs by 2020. Macron's office said several other companies would also announce investments plans. The French president is hosting 140 world business leaders in a bid to convince them to invest and hire in France - and to persuade the French themselves of the merits of his economic policies. Macron wants to promote his business-friendly policies, including measures to ease France's labor rules and tax changes that aim to attract foreign investors. Facebook will invest 10 million euros (US$12 million) in its French artificial intelligence centre. Other announcements will include a food production plant and a research center, some traditional manufacturers and some high tech projects. CEOs or top executives from Coca-Cola, Google, JP Morgan and Alibaba are among those expected at the meeting. Business leaders are stopping in France en route to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, where Macron will give a speech. Macron, a 40-year-old pro-European centrist who was elected in May 2017, argues his economic policies will make France stronger to face globalization. His labour market measures, perceived by many as weakening France's hard-won worker protection rights, prompted a series of street protests last year. They are expected to start producing effects in the coming months. Macron also promised to subsequently cut taxes on business revenue by 2022. State statistics agency Insee last month raised its 2017 growth estimate for France to 1.9 percent, the highest in ten years. Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork Twitter: https://twitter.com/AP_Archive Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/APArchives ​​ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/APNews/ You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/youtube/bc2c8155dc67e0bdca34b89227f5f368

Added 8 Jul 2026