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Liverpool breaks into elite top 25 cities for foreign direct investment – FDI Magazine
• International investment strategy judged in top 10 in Europe
Liverpool has broken into a prestigious city attractiveness ranking for the first time.
The city features in several lists for the top cities for foreign direct investment (FDI) in the fDi Magazine’s European Cities of the Future 2012-13.
Liverpool has been ranked 24th in the overall Top 25 European Cities of the Future which was topped by London, with Paris and Vienna taking second and third places. Liverpool was just two places behind Barcelona in the ranking.
The only other English cities that made the top 25 were Reading, Cambridge and Bristol.
fDi Magazine is a Financial Times company which provides FDI news and the through their portfolio of FDI intelligence products, also tracks data for all sectors and global regions.
Liverpool also appeared in 7th place in the highly significant FDI Strategy Small Cities list topped by Antwerp; joint 5th with Manchester in the Small European Cities of the Future, behind Bristol, Antwerp, Zurich and Lyon; and joint 10th with Cork in FDI Strategy – Northern Europe, topped by Edinburgh.
Liverpool also came third for infrastructure, significantly influenced by the size and activity of the Port of Liverpool. This category was headed by Duisburg in Germany followed by Utrecht in Holland.
The shortlist was compiled using independently collected data from FDI Intelligence for 253 cities across Europe and this shortlist was judged against six categories - economic potential, cost effectiveness, human resources, quality of life, infrastructure and business friendliness.
A seventh category was added – FDI promotion strategy. Against this category, 73 cities submitted applications, with Liverpool Vision submitting for Liverpool, about their promotion strategy and this was judged and scored by an independent international panel.
Apart from the Top 25 overall ranking, cities were divided into categories based on their population. Liverpool along with all the other UK core cities fell into the Small Cities categories apart from Birmingham, which appeared in the ‘Large’ category.
Max Steinberg, chief executive, Liverpool Vision, said: “FDI is a regularly quoted and referenced source when making investment decisions and Liverpool’s presence in this list alone is a positive reinforcement of the progress the city is making.
“Judges were also particularly impressed with our FDI strategy, which we can be very pleased about. It also adds weight to our belief that we should be included in other key attractiveness rankings, most notably the Cushman and Wakefield European Cities Monitor.
“We know what a vibrant and ambitious city, Liverpool is with the second fastest growing economy in the UK, but we can learn from this report. We want to stay in this list and move up.
“The report indicates the way. It shows that it is now incumbent on us to develop the right relationships with the right opinion formers to ensure they understand fully our assets and strengths and that we need to develop our growing relationship with London as the largest recipient of FDI in Europe – for both our Liverpool in London office will play an important role.”
Cllr Joe Anderson, leader of Liverpool City Council, added: “It is our long-running ambition to establish Liverpool as a top national and international investment location with dynamic, trade, investment, knowledge and tourism relationships.
“We are developing these in a variety of ways through our London office and our representatives in other countries, most notably the US and China as well as the hosting of high profile events of international significance like the GEC and Sea Odyssey.
“Opening up the city’s opportunities for innovation, investment and wealth creation to more potential economic partners across the world is high on the city council’s priorities as we move forward to create the conditions for sustainable prosperity."
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