Key Competitive Attractions
Nord is strategically located next to Pas-de-Calais, Aisne, Belgium and the North Sea. Its city, Lille, won European Capital of Culture for 2004, and is surrounded by a cluster of industrial towns including Roubaix, Villeneuve d'Ascq and Tourcoing, totalling one million inhabitants.
Lille is the cradle of national distribution, with financial and insurance services sectors second only to Paris.
Thriving clusters exist in the sectors:
- Automotive
- Textiles
- Agriculture
- Logistics
- Metallurgy
Infrastructure:
- Crossroads location between the UK, Benelux and France
- Population over 100 million within 300 km
- TGV - 38 minutes from Brussels, 1 hour from Paris, 2 hours from London
- Five European motorways converge Lille, connecting it to London, Brussels, Amsterdam, Luxembourg, Berlin, Geneva and Paris.
- Regular flights from Lille Airport to other major European cities
