This can already be seen in the arrival of many foreign investors ( more than 500 businesses with foreign capital )， the offices of major multinationals ( such as CMA-CGM，Bouygues Telecom， France Telecom， Cegetel ) which in record time have multiplied the number of jobs in Provence， notably in the field of high-level management. These offices have joined those of the large companies which had already chosen Provence： Air Products， Avenir Telecom， Barlatier， Carrefour， Casino， ST Micro Electronic， Castorama， Coca-Cola， Danone， Danzas， Darty， Decathlon， DHL， Ducros Euro Express， Eurocopter， Europa Discount， Gemplus， Haribo， Kiabi， Michelin， Navarro， Orangina， Panzani， Perier， Ricard， Rivoire t? Carret， Lustucru， Tat Express， Unilever， UPS， etc.

Geographically， the Provence-Alpes-Cote d’Azur region and Marseille are located in a privileged position at the mouth of the Rhone corridor， on the Mediterranean coast between Italy and Spain. This location provides Marseille with certain advantages：
·Marseille-Fos is the leading commercial port in France and on the Mediterranean (annual traffic exceeding 90 million metric tons ).
·Marseille-Provence， second largest airport in France in terms of freight and the third in terms of passenger traffic ( 6 million people a year ) links Marseille to all the major cities of Europe.
·Since June， 2001， Paris and Marseille are less than 3 hours apart by TGV ( High-Speed- Train ).
·“Cruise” activities are increasing at the port of Marseille ( 500，000 passengers for the region， the Mediterranean being the second largest cruise destination in the world ).
·A modern multi-modal logistics platform has been set up between the industrial-port zone of Fos and the Marseille-Provence Airport， combining shipping， road， rail， river and air traffic for the Southern Europe.

→ Number 1 port in France and on the Mediterranean Sea.
→ Number 1 microelectronics center in France and Southern Europe.
→ Number 1 area for investments.
→ Number 1 telecommunications center ( outside Paris).
→ Number 1 helicopter maker in the world.
→ Number 1 freight airport (outside Paris ).
→ Number 1 sound and image production center (outside Paris ).
→ Number 1 public research area (outside Paris ).
→ Number 1 most visited region in terms of number of tourists.