Choose Overseas Territories: boosting investment and employment

The summit aims to replicate the model of ‘Choose France’ – an initiative designed to attract investors – in the overseas territories. The aim is to better highlight the economic potential of the overseas territories and to facilitate the implementation of key development projects. This inaugural event will feature several investment announcements, as well as the launch of an impact fund worth several million euros dedicated to the overseas territories, according to a press release issued by the ministry on 25 September.
Employment will be the second major focus, with a ‘job dating’ event organised in partnership with France Travail and APEC, taking place simultaneously in Paris and across five territories: Guadeloupe, Martinique, French Guiana, Réunion and Mayotte. The number of vacancies on offer highlights the disparities in employment across the territories: 64 posts in Réunion, 26 in Mayotte, 27 in Martinique, 14 in French Guiana, 11 in Guadeloupe, 2 in New Caledonia and… zero in Saint Martin. This disparity is also reflected, according to IEDOM data from April 2026, in the unemployment rate. Saint Martin has the highest rate in the French West Indies: 30.1 per cent, compared with 16.9 per cent in French Guiana, 16.8 per cent in Guadeloupe and 12.3 per cent in Martinique. Choose Outre-mer is therefore operating in a context characterised not only by significant economic disparities between the territories and with mainland France, but also by a dependence on imports that remains very high. 

What is the significance for the French Antilles? 

The Paris event takes place a few weeks after the first Overseas Territories Economic Conference, organised in July by CCI France and ACCIOM. Representatives from the overseas territories, chambers of commerce and the business community aimed to develop joint proposals and contribute to the national debate on the attractiveness and economic development of the overseas territories, particularly in preparation for this summit… These proposals, which were presented as achievable without additional funding – with some costing nothing and being directly implementable by businesses – were due to form the basis of a white paper to be unveiled in September, but nothing has been announced to date.
For its part, the government wishes to change perceptions of the overseas territories in order to attract investors, by highlighting the strategic assets of three territories: the space sector and natural resources in French Guiana, nickel in New Caledonia, and biodiversity in French Polynesia. One cannot help but note that, in the announcements made, neither tourism nor the blue economy – two themes whose development feature in every discussion among local stakeholders – are on the agenda. When it comes to the positioning of the Caribbean region, this raises questions.
One aspect, however, should be of particular interest to local businesses: the reduction in payment terms that the Minister has included in her roadmap because, according to her, this undermines small businesses… QED? But reducing payment terms implies that one has the funds to pay.
On a positive note, Naïma Moutchou also intends to preserve the LODEOM’s social security contribution relief schemes and to draft an economic policy bill designed to set a course beyond 2027. Also on her agenda is the issue of the high cost of living in the overseas territories, for which a bill was tabled in the Senate in July 2025 and passed by senators on 28 October of that year. However, it has still not been examined by the National Assembly. The Minister has announced her intention to resume its examination from next January.
‘Choose Outre-mer’ will therefore need to provide a means of assessing the nature and scale of the investments actually announced, as well as the role assigned to each of the territories within this new strategy championed by the Minister.