By Trevor Sturgess

Kent’s hope of more jobs and business in the run-up to the Olympic Games has received a boost on the French Riveria.

Next year, the county is raising its profile at the MIPIM Property Development and Regeneration Show in Cannes.

The UK is being unveiled as the 2011 "Nation Of Honour" at MIPIM.

The show is attended by the worlds leading property investors who make decisions where to put their money. Alex King, a non-executive director of Locate In Kent, the agency that promotes the county as a great place of business, hopes they will put it into Kent. He is determined that Kent will play a leading role at MIPIM in 2011.

"This is a major initiative to bring local authorities together in a way they have never come together before," he said.

"Believe me, it is going to be magical. We have an enormous opportunity and we’re going to take it."

Councilor King, who is also the deputy leader of Kent County Council hopes that council leader Paul Carter will visit the show for the first time.

Mayor of London, Boris Johnson was in Cannes yesterday (MARCH 16) to promote London businesses, his second visit in two years.

"This is our time and in the run-up to the Olympic Games, we will capitalise on it for the UK, but particularly for Kent."

He hopes that most of the funding will come from the private sector and is inviting Hitachi, manufacturer of the high-speed domestic trains in Kent, to take part, he is also hoping to attract a Royal Navy warship or support vessel to be anchored off Cannes to back Kent’s cause.