Economic and population growth, enhanced attractiveness, innovative companies, technologies of the future, major structural projects: the Bordeaux Metropolitan area and Gironde can boast an entire range of positive indicators.
Over the next 10 years a great deal of investment will help strengthen the economic, tourist and residential attractiveness of the metropolitan area and the Gironde.
Heading towards a European metropolis
The Bordeaux Region attracts:
- in 10 years, the population of the Aquitaine has risen by nearly 10%, reaching a total of 3.3 million residents;
- The Bordeaux conurbation, with 850,000 residents today, has also seen a large increase in population.
With European ambitions and more than 30 billion euros invested in major structural projects, the Bordeaux metropolitan area is preparing to reach one million residents by 2030. “Both in symbolic and practical terms, becoming a million-strong city is a change of model”, admits Jean-Marc Offner, director of Agence d’urbanisme Bordeaux-Aquitaine (A’Urba).
Seen from the outside, “this is one of the most innovative and active conurbations in France when it comes to analysis and planning the future of the metropolis”, says Michel Lussault, president of the University of Lyon and a member of the scientific committee of Bordeaux Urban Community (CUB) “Fabrique métropolitaine”.
Bordeaux among the top French cities
“Bordeaux instead of Paris” read the headline in the New York Times on 1st October 2013. At national level, the city frequently finishes among the front runners in the list of cities considered to be attractive, “business friendly” or “good places to live” … these rankings attest to the dynamics of a city which is among those creating the most jobs.
Euratlantique and the Campus: 2 symbolic projects
There is no shortage of major projects to shape the new metropolis and accelerate its growth.
These include “50,000 dwellings”, “55,000 hectares of green spaces”, the future “Cité des Civilisations du Vin”….
Euratlantique is one of the largest urban projects in France: 738 hectares, 3 municipalities involved, more than 5 billion euros of investment, 25,000 jobs planned in the tertiary sector. Capitalising on the arrival of the high-speed train link in 2017 and the extension of the St Jean train station, this new neighbourhood will receive its first new services in 2016 in the shape of the new MECA (Center for the Creative Economy and Culture of Aquitaine) building and the Headquarters of a savings bank, the Caisse d’Épargne.
Bordeaux is clearly growing, and wants to remain a learning city. With the “campus of excellence” accreditation, the University of Bordeaux has recorded a steady increase in student numbers. Its goal? To be included among the major European universities.
“With 19 prize-winning projects, the Bordeaux region has one of the highest success rates for future investment” affirms the General Commissariat for investment.
