French Pavilion at Urban Mobility 2012

That France is keen to make its presence felt in the Urban Mobility sector in India was evident from the large French Pavilion at the UMI. 14 leading companies from France showcased their expertise and state-of-the-art technologies at the conference-cum-Expo. The French Trade Commissions –UBIFRANCE (the French agency for international business development, a key public partner in export for French companies), in collaboration with the European Business and Technology Centre (EBTC), hosted a pavilion and coordinated the participation of the delegation in the technical conferences on different aspects of sustainable mobility. How seriously France takes its trade with India was evident from the technical roundtables and B2B meetings conducted by Ubifrance. French and Indian stakeholders from the sectors shared ideas and discussed ways to lead India?s urban development on a sustainable path.

French Pavilion was a part of the European Pavilion, the biggest pavilion of the Expo, and had companies that represented the urban development sector in France. They included Alstom Transport (leading manufacturer of everything related with the rail / urban transport sector: rolling stock infrastructure, information systems, services, turnkey solutions), Certifier (leader in the independent safety assessment of the railway and guided transportation), Deny Fontaine (large manufacturer of locking and safety equipment allowing the right circulation of authorised people), Egis Rail (leading European Engineering Company specialising in the design and management of railways and urban mass transit projects), Eurailtest (testing and consultancy leader specialising in rail and metro systems with expertise in rolling stock, infrastructure, environment and urban systems), Eurovia (specialises in building roads, highways, railway lines, and light-rail platforms), Forest-Line (manufacturer of metro and rail bogies, special steels, and switches for the rail industry), IDMS (specialises in turnkey solutions for the rail industry such as on-board passenger information systems and stationary public address & automatic announcement systems), Lumiplan (facilitates the implementation of bus lines, management of vehicles and conductors & passenger information), Scoma (offers customised high quality ball points, rods, and drag links for trains & tramways, and other urban vehicles), Visionor (provides industrial video, T V Display for railway and metro terminals), VosslohCogifer (global player in selected rail infrastructure and rail technology markets) and Yellow Window Consultants (into interior designing for metros, road, rail, signalisation and terminals). Three companies were federated and accompanied by the International Chamber of Commerce & Industry of the Nord-Pas de Calais region in France. The French Association of Rail Industries (AIF), which too was a part of the delegation, expressed interest in bringing to the Indian market some of the best technologies and practices in sustainable urban infrastructure.

Technical workshops organised on the French Pavilion on various themes, provided an interactive platform to foster technology transfers as well as commercial and industrial partnerships. They also helped to enhance expertise and encourage exchange of innovative ideas between participants from France and Indian decision makers from all around the country.