Proposals for an ambitious Côte d’Azur territory in 2040

The Côte d’Azur territory is not lacking in strengths or weaknesses! Its population is aging, housing is lacking and its transport is saturated… How to make it stronger and more ambitious?

The Institut Montaigne, in partnership with the consultancy firm in territorial influence strategy Stan, brought together for more than a year a hundred local actors from the economic, cultural, associative, academic and social world around the approach Côte d’Azur territory: 2040 ambitions.

This mobilization – “strong, benevolent and apolitical”explains Nicolas Barthe, president of Stan, – was carried out in collaboration with the CCI Nice Côte d’Azur, the Union for Enterprise (UPE06), KPMG and the Edhec Business School. “It made it possible to identify the priority subjects so that the territory fully assumes its status and potential in 2040.”

21 concrete recommendations

From this analysis work were born a strategic vision and 21 concrete recommendations which were presented in Nice during the Entreprenariales fair.. “The four convictions conveyed by the report [lire ci-après] assume that the balanced development of the territory requires the sustainable attraction of young people, andexplains Baptiste Larseneur, in charge of studies at the Institut Montaigne. Tourism is a major axis of development but must become more sustainable and give way to a more diversified economy.”

Solutions must be provided to settle the cost of housing and the territorial fragmentation which are major brakes on the attractiveness of the Maralpine.

Think long term

“We chain societal, economic, health crises and we think in the short term, considers for his part Pierre Ippolito, president of the UPE06. This report is projected on the medium and long terms. We must collectively assume a territorial ambition commensurate with our global reputation. It is essential that we continue to invest in training, tourism, the industries of tomorrow and above all the infrastructures which must compensate for our geographical constraints.”

And to remember that the last structuring infrastructure dates from fifty years ago “with the construction of the Nice Côte d’Azur airport. Since then, we have been surfing on this strong economic choice. Without an airport, there would not be the Nice, Sophia, Cannes that we know today.” Hence the need to project oneself.

President of the Côte d’Azur employers’ union “dream of a maralpine world where you can go from Cannes to Nice, Grasse, Carros and Monaco by metro [un projet estimé à 1Md€]. This would solve our mobility problems, but we need joint coordination of the economic, political and civil society worlds.

Now that the report is out, what next? “Communicate so that the background noises that evoke these solutions become audible, continues Pierre Ippolito. After that it will be the role of the institutions”from UPE06 in particular. “The economic world can take the lead on certain subjects, such as mobility.” Is the latter not largely financed by companies with the Transport payment?