While the overwhelming majority of business in Val d’Oise are small to medium-sized, larger corporations are by no means absent and play a key role in local economic life. Many major French and international companies (including U.S companies ) have set up in Val d’Oise, notably in the Cergy-Pontoise town, the industrial area around Argenteuil and in the vicinity of Roissy CDG airport. Among them are 3M, Imation , Spie Batignolles, BP, Johnson, General Motors, Dassault, Goodrich, Câbles de Lyon, Sagem, Delphi, Thales, Brother, Pionneer, Amec-Spie and Sharp. Such companies are important sub-contractors to many of the smaller companies which account for the bulk of production in the Val d’Oise. These cover a wide range of activities, with a particular emphasis on technology-based industries such as computer hardware, industrial equipment, biotechs, and electronics. To take just one example, the Val d’Oise produces more industrial robots than any other département in France.In the last thirty years, industry’s move away from Paris, first to the immediate outskirts and later to outlying suburbs, has fueled the creation of no fewer than 86 industrial areas covering over 10.000 acres for the city or Paris. Cergy-Pontoise and Roissy CDG airport remain the largest such areas, but 17 others employ more than 1.000 people each. "Val d’Oise has created 70.000 new jobs since 1990 -the swifest rise for any departement in Ile-de-France- and currently counts over 350.000 private sector employees. While industry is a net source of job creation, growth has been fastest in services, especially engineering, consultancy and insurance. The 8.000 new jobs created recently were mostly in the heartland of the Val d’Oise, further strenghtening its role as a coherent economic whole fueling activity across the board.