Memphis and Paris are working together to pursue opportunities which will be mutually beneficial to both America’s Aerotropolis and Aerotropolis Europe. Representatives from Memphis who signed a letter of intent to continue this working relationship are Greater Memphis Chamber president and CEO John Moore, Airport Authority president Larry Cox and Aerotropolis chairman, Arnold Perl. Those that signed from Paris are PREDA/Hubstart Paris president Jean-Claude Detilleux, Aeroports de Paris real estate director Francois Cangardel and president of Aerotropolis Europe, Alain Chaille. The letters were signed in the presence of City of Memphis Mayor A C Wharton, French Minister for urban planning and social development, Maurice Leroy, and the managing director of Invest in France, Serge Boscher.

---

This letter of intent is made this day of April 11, 2011 to set forth the stated intention of the Greater Roissy Area, France and the Greater Memphis Area, Tennessee, USA, to form a stronger cooperative relationship in developing mutually beneficial trade programs and opportunities.

With their key role in a globalized economy, airport hubs – specifically the economic areas around important airports – have a greater attractiveness.

The Greater Roissy area is an exceptional land for economic exchanges in France, attracting numerous companies and employing over 260.000 people, what makes it the first pole of job creation in France for the last 10 years.

The area enjoys major infrastructures:

• The Charles De Gaulle international airport, first freight airport in Europe, with its European hub of FedEx, and second passenger airport (seventh in the world) with the hub of Air France-KLM.
• The Paris-Le Bourget airport, first business airport in Europe.
• The first multimodal hub in Europe with more than seventy destinations with high speed trains (TGV).
• The Euro-Carex project, which would be the first freight network in Europe with high speed trains serving Europe in 2015.
• The Canal Seine Nord project, which will allow a fourth mode of service (naval).

 
The Greater Roissy Area is one of the strategic development poles of the Greater Paris project, that ambitions to reinforce and increase the French capital area role as one of the major world-wide global cities of the 21st century.
From its early days of consolidating and distributing cotton and lumber to the nation and world, through its twenty-first century position as the globe’s largest, fastest, and most connected multimodal logistics complex, Memphis and distribution have been synonymous. Yes, its rich heritage in music and food, along with other cultural amenities, have made Memphis famous world-wide, attracting millions of tourists annually, but its economic backbone has been and continues to be distribution.

By partnering the Greater Roissy Area, Memphis will take another step in creating more efficient and more reliable trade routes around the globe. The continental connectivity that this relationship provides will allow companies to be only hours from their suppliers, as well as their end markets.

This relationship is intended to leverage the combined resources and expertise of each party to create an expanded support network for businesses interested in investing in each respective community. In addition, this cooperation could be used to jointly prospect for companies which are seeking to expand internationally, with a view to selling them both destinations: Memphis as their North American base and the Greater Roissy Area as their European base. Common actions will be identified and implemented by the partners in order to promote the two airport hubs of Memphis and Paris Charles de Gaulle to investors and companies, targeting key countries in particular.

It is understood that both Greater Memphis and the Greater Roissy will continue to play an extremely important role in both domestic and international trade. It is further understood that existing and planned infrastructure developments will enhance the parties’ ability to prosper economically.

It is intended that this cooperative relationship will be formed in the spirit of friendship and collaboration with the intentions of improving the economic and business opportunities in each respective community, and become closer culturally. The parties also acknowledge the importance of cultural enlightenment on community development projects, and agree to encourage cultural exchanges or opportunities that may arise during this relationship.

This letter documents the intent of the parties to appoint representatives from each community to meet and develop a more definitive agreement to include the relationship’s purpose, objectives, and organizational processes to be used.

This letter of Intent is not a legally binding or legally enforceable agreement. It merely reflects the parties’ current intentions, and does not bind either of them to enter into any legal agreements in the future.

This Memorandum of Understanding was signed on 11 april 2011 in the presence of:

Annex
Greater Paris

France has launched, with the impulse of its president Nicolas Sarkozy, a vast program to develop attractiveness and competitiveness of its capital, represented as the “Greater Paris” project.

The “Greater Paris” project ambitions to reinforce and strengthen the position of Paris among the global metropolis network. In fact, the “City of lights” is adapting very quickly to modernity by becoming a worldwide political and economic organisation centre. Around 35 billion Euros (50 billion dollars) will be invested in the coming twenty years by the State, the regional Council of “Ile-de-France” and local authorities, of which 20 billions will beneficiate to the urban transport network.
In addition to the Greater Roissy, the “Greater Paris” would allow to accelerate the development of several key areas directly connected to international airports (Saint Denis Pleyel, La Défense, le campus de Saclay, Est parisien – Cité Descartes, etc…) through a new line of more than 93 miles automatic sub-train. This will be interconnected with the future TGV (high-speed train in France) railway ring, therefore to the rest of French and European railway network.

Paris is also the second largest concentration in the world, right after Tokyo, of global headquarters (Fortune 500) and ambitions to develop in that field. This would only be possible through partnerships with world-class excellence centres such as Memphis for cargo. That is the reason why the French State, Hubstart Paris® Alliance, Aéroports de Paris and Aerotroplis Europe join their forces with Memphis authorities to develop exchanges between the Grand Roissy and the Grand Memphis Areas.

* Paris Region Economic Development Agency (PREDA).