Economic dynamics of portier cove
Portier Cove, Monaco’s offshore extension project, is providing jobs and generating economic benefits in and outside Monaco and offering many opportunities. Julien Biet, Administrative and Financial Director of Bouygues TP Monaco, and Julien Ruzzene, the company’s HR Manager, explain.
“We have been working with around 100 Monegasque companies since the project started,” says Julien Ruzzene. The companies are mainly from the field of construction and civil engineering.
“A little more than two years since the site opened, this represents around 100 million euros,” says Julien Biet. A significant part of the business generated involves the company Jan de Nul, whose numerous highly specialised ships can be seen working on the sea every day. The Monegasque offshore expansion project has prompted the Luxembourg company to open a branch in the Principality. Julien Ruzzene says that since the project began, Bouygues TP Monaco has assisted its subcontractors with the registration process in the Principality when necessary, through government departments such as Urbamer, the Business Development Agency and the Employment Office.
“This proactive approach ensures efficient interaction among the departments and ensures that all the interventions on the project are lawful,” says Julien Ruzzene.
Julien Biet points out the benefits generated by the numerous office spaces that have been leased in the Principality, as well as the company’s use of the local labour force for certain ad hoc requirements. On the water, Trasomar, the Monegasque maritime and underwater work company, is also an essential partner for Bouygues TP Monaco. This 100 million euro figure will be approximately doubled between now and the completion of the construction of the land extension.
Operators such as Monaco Telecom, the Société Monégasque de l’Electricité et du Gaz (Smeg), Monaco Parkings and La Poste Monaco are obviously in demand. In addition, Bouygues TP Monaco’s 70 employees are insured with a Monegasque company. The arrival of clients, international teams, etc. generated a hundred overnight stays each year. Finally, Bouygues TP Monaco contributes to the actions of many non-governmental organisations in Monaco, including Amade, and Enfants de Frankie. The company is part of various associations and its teams takes part in initiatives such as the No Finish Line. “We do everything that any company established in Monaco for the long term would do,” say the two managers.
THE FUTURE
So, what will happen once the land has been completed? Many Monegasque companies will contribute to the urbanisation of this offshore extension, which will again involve hundreds of employees and generate a multitude of economic benefits. Also, as Bouygues TP Monaco is bound by a 30-year guarantee of its work, teams will remain in Monaco for this entire period. Solutions at other sites are being considered for the employees who will need to be demobilised.
BEYOND MONACO
Municipalities neighbouring Monaco are inevitably reaping some of the economic benefits, but it is in Marseille particularly that people are rubbing their hands together. A little more than two years ago, the city’s mayor, Jean-Claude Gaudin, estimated that benefits from the Portier Cove project would create more than 700 jobs in Marseille over several years. Obviously, the people employed will need food, accommodation and more, generating an additional impact.
Bouygues alone has employed more than 600 people to build and equip the 18 caissons. In Marseille and the sites where the backfill and rock are produced in Châteauneuf-les-Martigues, Italy and Toulon, the Portier Cove project has generated work for dockworkers, truck drivers and maintenance staff.
Based on an article by Georges-Olivier Kalifa published in the Gazette de Monaco on the 8th of November, 2018.
