The city is the chief resort of the Côte d' Azur as well as being an active commercial port and business centre which is attracting international investment. For example, the Austrian company TT Tech is setting up a research centre just outside of Nice, while Intorel of Luxembourg is establishing its European headquarters in the region. The majority of foreign investment comes from America, though 2002 saw a high level of investment from both Great Britain and Switzerland.

Economy:
Nice is central to the economy of the Côte d'Azur, which according to the regional chamber of commerce, is based largely on non-industrial sectors. In 2001, commerce, trade services and other services accounted for approximately 80 per cent of all revenue, industry and construction accounted for approximately just under 20 per cent, while agriculture made up the rest.

The creation of science and technology parks have helped to develop the Nice area into one of France's most important centres for research in industry, science and advanced technology. Firmly establishing telecommunications and information technology and healthcare and medical sciences as some of the most prominent sectors of the local economy.

Sophia Antipolis business and science park, for example, was founded in 1969 just outside Nice and 15 kilometres from Nice Airport. It houses well over a thousand companies ranging from start-ups to multinationals operating in fields such as computing and multimedia, information processing, on-line services and networking. These include Air France, Cisco Data Systems, Compaq, Lucent Technologies, Nortel Networks, Siemens and Toyota. The European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) is also based at the park.

Tourism also plays a significant role in the local economy and the Côte d'Azur is the top tourist destination in France after Paris, attracting about 9 million tourists a year for both leisure and business. The region boasts hundreds of excellent hotels and 20 modern convention centres.

Local Infrastructure:
The city benefits from excellent transport connections the rest of Europe and beyond. Nice Côte d'Azur Airport is the second busiest airport in France catering for more than 9 million passengers a year. It offers daily flights to and from approximately 60 major international destinations throughout Europe and North Africa as well as several destinations in Canada, the USA and the Middle East. In addition, there are flights connecting the airport to 21 destinations within France, including approximately 45 daily flights to and from Paris. Flight times to Paris are about 1.5 hours and most major European cities can be reached in about 2 hours.

Nice lies at the centre of a dense rail network with more than 150 trains leaving the city each day, including the Trans-Europe-Express which provides links to both Paris and Milan. By road, Marseilles can be reached in just over 2 hours, while Florence, Milan and Barcelona can be reached in approximately 4.5 hours, 3.5 hours and 6 hours respectively. In 1993 the French and Italian governments approved the construction of a tunnel under the Mercantour mountains that will put the Nice region within a 3 hour drive from the main cities of Piedmont and Lombard. However, work on the tunnel is currently postponed due to environmental concerns.

Local Workforce:
Figures from the Chamber of Commerce and Industry for Nice Cote d'Azur show that approximately two thirds of the regions workforce are employed in services, while a further 17 per cent work in commerce. Industry and construction account for about 16 per cent of workers, while the remainder work in agriculture.

The region has access to a highly qualified labour force resulting from its numerous educational institutions. For example, the University of Nice has 8 faculties catering for some 35,000 students and has also built a campus at Sophia Antipolis. Europe's leading school of communications engineering and computer science, Eurécom, was also founded at Sophia Antipolis in 1992 by the French National Telecommunications School and the Swiss Polytechnic School of Lausanne. The technology park also plays host to the Theseus Institute, which trains managers in the strategic use of information technology in business, and the Ceram Institute, which offers a Masters in software engineering.

Standard of Living:
Located on the Mediterranean coast halfway between Monaco and Cannes, Nice offers an excellent quality of life with a pleasant climate and plenty of social, cultural, culinary and leisure activities available. The region also benefits from first rate education facilities including ten bilingual French-English schools and one German-French school, which cater for children from kindergarten through to secondary school level.

Business Costs:
Average salaries in the whole of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region are the second highest in France, after the Ile-de-France. However, the French government offers financial assistance to companies hiring individuals in certain categories such as the long-term unemployed.