China becoming a top investor in France

China has become one of the leading investors in France, as an increasing number of Chinese investors are investing heavily in this European country.

A total of 1,298 investment decisions were made in France last year, with China as a leading Asian investor in the country, said Florent Mangin, deputy director of Business France China, a national agency supporting the international development of the French economy.

"To date, more than 600 Chinese enterprises have invested in France. Investments from China also rose sharply last year, which was an increase of 27 percent year-on-year," he said.

He added that these investments also brought about more than 2,200 jobs, which soared 63 percent compared with the same period last year.

He made the comments during the France Ecotourism Development and Investment Forum held Thursday in the Embassy of France in China, where an array of investors and representatives from tourism bureaus also participated.

Floriane Codiac, deputy general manager of Atout France China, a national organization responsible for the country's tourism development, noted at the forum that France has always been a top destination of Chinese tourists and that the country has welcomed an estimated 2 to 2.2 million Chinese tourists last year.

Citing Villages Nature Paris, an ecological holiday destination in France, she said that more and more Chinese tourists are "dying for a pure French lifestyle and art of living" and "they have higher demands for an ecologically friendly environment."

Villages Nature Paris is a 700 million euro ($809.6 million) cooperation between the Pierre et Vacances Center Parcs Group (PVCP), a French tourism real estate company, and Euro Disney SCA, which aims to explore a new form of holiday destination.

"It is not only a vacation destination but also an investment cradle, which combines tourism and investment," said Guillaume Hubert de Fraisse, CEO of PVCP. "We hope to welcome more than a million tourists each year."