Sarkozy's visit: leading French businessmen met Israel's top industrialists

300 leading Israeli industrialists met with about 100 of France's top business leaders last week to deepen trade relations between the two countries and boost local industry exports to France
 
Among the 100 French businessmen arriving as part of the state visit by French President Nicolas Sarkozy on Sunday were the head of the Industrialists' Association of France, France Telecom's marketing director, the CEO of Peugeot, head of the Crיdit Agricole Private Equity Bank, the CEO of EDF Energy, the marketing director of Edas France and representatives of Alstom.
 
The business meetings examined economic ties between the two countries in the fields of telecommunications and software, vehicle components, medical equipment and infrastructure.
 
The French business delegation met with leading representatives of the local industry, including Osem, Keter, Alvarion, Teva Pharmaceutical Industries, Nesher, Readymix, Rekah Pharmaceutical Group, and Deutsch Dagan.
 
According to figures published by Dan Catarivas, director of the International Department at the Israel Manufacturers' Association, local industry exports to France dropped by 6.1% to $490 million in the first five months of the year compared with the same period last year, while imports from France rose by 37.1% to $750.4m. during the same period.