Business and government officials from Paris and Memphis signed a letter of intent on Monday (April 11) to foster closer trade ties and develop mutually supportive aerotropoli based on their respective FedEx hubs.
Memphis Mayor A C Wharton, Larry Cox, CEO of Memphis International Airport and Maurice Leroy, France's minister of urban planning, were among those at the signing ceremony at the Peabody Hotel in Memphis during the Airport Cities World Conference and Exhibtion.
The agreement is intended to make it easier for the two cities to do business and Wharton began the ceremony by reminding all those present that "Our [France and the US] alliance has been strong since the US appeared in the world" with the bond between the two people's having never failed.
The two cities are looking to develop mutually beneficial bio-medical, high value manufacturing and time sensitive products and business around their two airports, with Leroy revealing that Paris was looking to connect its three principal gateways of Charles De Gaulle, Le Bourget and Orly via the Paris Metro and develop high speed rail connections, the network will "support the circulation of people and products."
"It is the airports that are driving the development of cities, they are the generators of economic capital," said Leroy.
"Paris is looking to create an aerotropolis of the highest magnitude as a growth engine for Grand Paris," he added.
The two cities are also the respective FedEx hubs for North America and Europe and with the addition of China's Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport will make up a global network serving the freight companies key markets.
By Oliver Clark
