Why Paris’s La Defense business district welcomes cooperation with China

CGTN Europe

La Defense in Paris is Europe’s largest purpose-built business district – and after hosting Olympic activity, it’s open for business. CEO Pierre-Yves Guice tells CGTN’s Ross Cullen how he welcomes cooperation with Chinese companies.

Transcript

00:00Well, the first legacy of the Olympics for La Défense is one of image because the whole

00:04world got to see the transformation of the district and especially the Paris La Défense

00:08arena, this 40,000 seat indoor sports venue that opened six years ago and was used obviously

00:15for the swimming and water polo competitions.

00:17But it's not only this, we also used the Olympics to accelerate and finish a major

00:23new infrastructure project called RER Line E, a bit of the equivalent of the Elizabeth

00:29Line in London, a new regional train line connecting La Défense to Gare du Nord, the

00:34airport, the Eurostar and almost half of the Paris region.

00:37And we also used the Olympics to improve the equipment of the district in bicycle lanes,

00:43bicycle equipment, because the whole project was that every Olympic venue should be accessible

00:48by bike.

00:50You mentioned bike lanes, there are plans for a park as well.

00:55Why is there this transformation?

00:58Have you seen a change since the end of the pandemic in the use of these buildings?

01:03How will these buildings survive going forward?

01:06Well, this is indeed a whole process of reinvention of the business district that we begun after

01:13the pandemic, because we all saw it in London, in North America, in Asia.

01:19These traditional monofunctional business districts were in danger of falling quickly

01:26out of fashion because workers, especially the younger ones, would no longer want to

01:32come to these same office blocks, office towers as before, when they could work from home,

01:38when they were expecting new things and more diverse things from their work life.

01:45So we had indeed to engage a vast transformation movement of La Défense.

01:51We first set ourselves the goal of turning it into a post-carbon business district, which

01:55is quite a tall order for a city that was essentially built in the 1960s.

02:00So decarbonise, rejuvenate all these older buildings.

02:04And then, like you said, also a vast transformation of the whole public realm with bicycle lanes,

02:11with new parks being created in place of these old concrete slabs from the 1960s.

02:17What about attracting and retaining foreign investment as well into this district going

02:23forward?

02:24La Défense has always been a destination of choice, I would say, for foreign investment

02:30in French real estate because of the towers, because of the quality of the tenants and

02:35the level of equipment of the district.

02:37But indeed, and especially just after the pandemic, these investment levels have fallen

02:42because of the macroeconomic conditions and all these uncertainties that we all know.

02:48So yeah, the goal with this whole strategy, with this low-carbon, new quality of life

02:53strategy for La Défense, is also to attract new foreign investors, be it from North America,

03:02from China, from the Middle East, whatever.

03:05They will always be very welcome in La Défense and we have a long tradition of working with them.

03:12France and China, the European Union and China do have some tensions at the moment.

03:16How do you describe a healthy business relationship?

03:20What's that for you, if you have a healthy business relationship?

03:23Well, we've always had quite a peaceful and very rich and constructive relationship with

03:29China in La Défense.

03:31We've always tried to inspire each other and to share good practices between La Défense

03:37and the major business districts from Beijing, from Shanghai, from Shenzhen, or whatever.

03:42We even have a club, an association of major business districts across the world in which

03:49several Chinese cities take part and actually Beijing will take over the presidency of this

03:55club from me, from La Défense, at the beginning of next year.

03:59So it's a really well-established working relationship and I think it should inspire

04:04also business relationships because obviously, in most of the cases, French and Chinese companies

04:11have much to gain working together.

04:13It seems obvious to me.

04:15And finally, looking ahead to your trip to China later in the year, what do you hope

04:19to gain from that travel?

04:22What are your expectations for that trip?

04:24Well, obviously my expectations, first and foremost, are to see new things and get new

04:30ideas because major Chinese cities have been developing at a very rapid and impressive

04:39rhythm for the last few decades, especially in Beijing and Shanghai, where I'll be going.

04:46So yeah, I said France can inspire China.

04:50The reciprocate is obviously true as well and so there are lots of good ideas in terms

04:56of architecture, of infrastructure, of urban planning that can be studied in these major

05:02Chinese cities.

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