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fDi magazine - April 23, 2007 Press Release - Cities of the Future

Bruce Donnelly   bruce@gdi-solutions.com    (Biography)

fDi Press Release : Summary   Details   City Rankings

fDi is a specialty publication of the Financial Times group for C-level executives about the business of globalization, including business location strategies and site selection for corporate expansion plans.

The website and April issue of fDi feature the winners, with PR sent out from London to many business media in the relevant cities across North America, followed by other PR from many of these cities to alert their local media contacts.

List of "Cities of the Future" selections by fDi

Additional background about the winners and selection process.

Other recent reports include Middle East cities and Free Zones last December, and European cities in April 2006.

April 2007 issue of fDi

Search back issues of fDi. 

The last North American Cities competition was in June 2005.

Similar research is performed in other regions of the world.

www.fdimagazine.com

Cities of the Future

in the April 2007 issue.

The next regional fDi research reports will be released in:

August 2007 - Latin America, Caribbean, and African countries

October - small Asian cities

December - large Asian cities

The fDi Editor (Courtney Fingar) and Publisher (David East) will be visiting from London for BIO 2007 in Boston ( www.bio.org ) from May 6-9. They will present awards there on May 7 to the various winners who also promote their cities at that global event because of their interests in the attraction of biotech and life sciences investment projects.

Chicago ranked as the US City of the Future in 2005 and the city has developed a massive lead ahead of its nearest competitors in the past two years thanks to high levels of public and private investment and consistently strong economic indicators. As fDi went to press, Chicago was celebrating the United States Olympic Committee's decision to support its bid for the 2016 summer games.

Meanwhile, Toronto, Ontario's good affordable housing, low crime levels, strong health and education sectors and falling unemployment helped push Canada's largest city into the runner's up position. Toronto has a strong and innovative environmental program and the city topped fDi's shortlist with the best quality of life of any major city.

Guadalajara in the Mexican state of Jalisco was the highest ranking major Mexican city. Guadalajara had the second strongest economic potential of any major North American city and only Chicago scored more highly for sheer economic potential. Guadalajara's youthful population, low unemployment and large number of recent foreign investment deals are good indicators that Mexico's second largest city has a bright future.

fDi's shortlists identify Juarez, Chihuahua as the top "large" City of the Future. Although Juarez is only the eighth largest city in Mexico, fDi's judges noted its growing importance as a regional industrial and logistics centre on the border between Mexico and the United States.

Windsor, Ontario ranks as North America's leading "small" City of the Future, scoring well for business-friendly policies and a strong development programthat includes several large-scale projects involving public and private investment.

fDi's "micro" City of the Future, Zapata, Texas, impressed the judges with its clear development strategy and success in attracting out of state investors. Zapata's many development projects include a new border crossing into Mexico, major highway improvements, and a strategy for growth and investment that includes logistics, air transport, alternative energy, eco-tourism and security.

•  Caribbean and Central American Countries of the Future
•  Central American and Caribbean Special Economic Zones of the Future 2007/08
•  African Countries of the Future
•  African Special Economic Zones of the Future

For information about how fDi magazine can help promote your location, please contact

Courtney Fingar
Editor
Foreign Direct Investment
www.fdimagazine.com

TEL  +44(0) 207 775 6365  (From the USA, dial as 011-44-207-775-6365)

One Southwark Bridge, London SE1 9HL

fDi magazine’s April/May issue has named Chicago, Illinois as North America’s “Major City of the Future.” (See table below for full results.) The Financial Times publication on inward investment selected Chicago for its ambitious development plans, massive infrastructure investment, reasonable location costs and energetic regional economy.

fDi researchers took more than six months to select the “top ten” shortlists of cities of all sizes with the best strategies and resources for economic development. Courtney Fingar, editor of fDi magazine, said: “fDi magazine’s City of the Future rankings reflect an independent panel of judges’ views on each city according to seven selection factors.

As part of the selection process, nine judges reviewed nominations from 108 cities on more than 60 criteria designed to assess cities’ potential to attract business investment projects.”

Chicago ranked as the US City of the Future in 2005 and the city has developed a massive lead ahead of its nearest competitors in the past two years thanks to high levels of public and private investment and consistently strong economic indicators. As fDi went to press, Chicago was celebrating the United States Olympic Committee’s decision to support its bid for the 2016 summer games.

Meanwhile, Toronto, Ontario’s good affordable housing, low crime levels, strong health and education sectors and falling unemployment helped push Canada’s largest city into the runner’s up position. Toronto has a strong and innovative environmental program and the city topped fDi’s shortlist with the best quality of life of any major city.

Guadalajara in the Mexican state of Jalisco was the highest ranking major Mexican city. Guadalajara had the second strongest economic potential of any major North American city and only Chicago scored more highly for sheer economic potential. Guadalajara’s youthful population, low unemployment and large number of recent foreign investment deals are good indicators that Mexico’s second largest city has a bright future.

fDi’s shortlists identify Juarez, Chihuahua as the top “large“ City of the Future. Although Juarez is only the eighth largest city in Mexico, fDi’s judges noted its growing importance as a regional industrial and logistics centre on the border between Mexico and the United States.

Windsor, Ontario ranks as North America’s leading “small” City of the Future, scoring well for business-friendly policies and a strong development program that includes several large-scale projects involving public and private investment.

fDi’s “micro” City of the Future, Zapata, Texas, impressed the judges with its clear development strategy and success in attracting out of state investors. Zapata’s many development projects include a new border crossing into Mexico, major highway improvements, and a strategy for growth and investment that includes logistics, air transport, alternative energy, eco-tourism and security.

This is the first time that cities in the United States, Canada and Mexico have competed directly against one another in fDi’s Cities of the Future research. As well as naming North America’s top ten major Cities of the Future, the ranking lists the top ten large, small and micro cities.

The short-listed cities are those that scored most highly in the following areas:

•  Economic potential
•  Cost effectiveness
•  Human resources
•  Quality of life
•  Infrastructure
•  Business friendliness
•  Development and investment promotion

fDi magazine’s "Locations of the Future" competition has been running for five years and covers almost every region across the world. The methodology is designed to identify those cities that have the basics in place to flourish in the next few years by attracting high levels of inward investment.

The shortlists are created by asking cities to provide data and qualitative information in much the same way investors approach locations during the screening process used to decide which are suitable for capital investment projects.

fDi’s Locations of the Future competition covers each region once every two years and is currently accepting entries from the following:

•  Caribbean and Central American Countries of the Future
•  Central American and Caribbean Special Economic Zones of the Future 2007/08
•  African Countries of the Future
•  African Special Economic Zones of the Future

In the second half of 2006, fDi magazine invited key cities across North America to answer more than 60 questions in the seven broad categories listed below. A total of 108 cities were considered by fDi’s panel of judges, which scored each city according the criteria listed below.

Cities were categorized by size so that cities across North America could compete against each other on a level basis:

•  Major: population of over two million
•  Large: 500,000 - 2 million
•  Small: 100,000 - 500,000
•  Micro: under 100,000

Cities scored up to a maximum of ten points for each criteria. The winners in each category are the cities that scored the most points in that category and the overall winner is the city that scored the most points across all seven categories.
Cities were scored by members of fDi’s editorial team and by independent guest judges (see judging panel below).

• Don Holbrook, board member, International Economic Development Council in Washington, who is also writing a book on world class cities
• Dan Malachuk, fDi’s US columnist and a strategist for the public and private sector
• Todd Malan, president and chief executive officer of the Organization for International Investment in Washington
• Daoud Awad, executive managing director, operational planning, New York Region Corporate Services for The Staubach Company
• Miguel Noyola, partner in charge of the Mexico practice in Chicago and Washington offices of law firm Baker McKenzie
• Steve Demmings, president, Site Selection Canada

fDi’s Locations of the Future competition covers each region once every two years. The next North American Cities of the Future competition will be published in 2009.

Economic potential  

•  Percentage of the population under 25

•  Adult unemployment level in 2005

•  Change in adult unemployment 2003 to 2005

•  Average annual earnings of employees in 2005

•  Average annual earnings growth 2004 to 2005

•  Fiscal balance 2005

•  Fiscal balance 2004

•  FDI stock per capita at the city level

•  FDI stock per capita at the state/province level

•  Foreign direct investment in 2005

•  Number of foreign investment deals signed in 2005

•  Three most significant inward investment projects

• Town centre office rental costs
• Out of town office rental costs
• Factory/industrial premises rental costs
• Warehouse rental costs
• Town centre office purchase costs
• Out of town office purchase costs
• Factory/industrial premises purchase costs
• Warehouse purchase costs
• Secretarial salaries
• Entry level manager salaries
• Middle manager salaries
• Senior manager salaries
• Manual worker wages
• Electricity tariffs for business/industrial users
• Water tariffs for business/industrial users
• Gas tariff for business/industrial users
• Unleaded fuel costs
• Diesel fuel costs

•  Number of university-level educational institutions in the city
•  Number of university-level educational institutions in the state/province
•  Leading university and research institutions in the city
•  Leading university and research institutions in the state/province
•  Number of student graduates in 2005
•  Percentage of the city population with a university-level degree
•  Number of “World top-200” universities
•  Government-sponsored worker training programs

•  Best housing areas
•  Average residential property purchase price
•  Average residential rental costs
•  Public and private healthcare facilities
•  Leading schools
•  Leading international schools
•  Cultural and environmental heritage
•  Incidents of crime per thousand people

•  Strategic transport links
•  Mobile phone ownership (% of adult population)
•  Internet connection speeds (maximum available bandwidth)

Business friendliness

•  Basic level of corporate taxation
•  Business-related taxes at the city level
•  Business-related taxes at the state/province level
•  Property transaction tax
•  Number of out-of-state companies in the city
•  Number of out-of-state companies in the state/province
•  Number of jobs created by out of state investment in the past year
•  Mandatory employer contributions, eg welfare taxes, healthcare benefits etc.

•  Sectors targeted for inward investment
•  Financial support available to investors
•  Non-financial investment support available to investors
•  Major infrastructure and urban planning projects
•  Environmental strategies and grants