Katowice was ranked the best eastern European city of the future for FDI promotion strategy. The ranking was prepared by the independent judging panel of fDi Magazine, a bi-monthly publication from the UK’s Financial Times.
The Magazine has published a “European Cities and Regions of the Future 2012/13” shortlist created from its independent collection of data across 253 European cities and 110 regions. This information was divided into seven categories: economic potential, human resources, cost effectiveness, quality of life, infrastructure, business friendliness and FDI promotion strategy (73 European cities and 60 regions submitted details in this last category).
In the overall ranking, Katowice was scored 87th being the third Polish city with the highest mark after Warsaw (21) and Kraków (69). The Silesia Metropolis was placed ninth in the eastern regions ranking overall and sixth for FDI promotion strategy.
“Katowice is a great example of growth of the post-industrial economy and reflects rapid changes taking place in Poland since 1990. The City has overtaken more popular Polish business destinations as Poznań and Wrocław in the overall classification. Katowice was the highest ranking eastern European city of the future for FDI promotion strategy and has the fifth score in the same category among small* European cities” – commented Courtney Fingar, editor of the fDi Magazine.
Better score was only achieved by Antwerp, Plymouth, Bristol and Lyon placed from first to fourth positions, respectively. Katowice was followed by such cities as Liverpool (7) and Lisbon (9).
- The judging criteria for the FDI strategy promotion’s category included:
– number of staff dedicated to promoting and facilitating inward investment,
– key initiatives that are being implemented to attract more investment,
– information on high growth sectors/sub-sectors in the city which offer excellent potential for inward investment,
– description of incentives which are available to inward investors,
– high-profile, world-class property/sites available in the city suitable for investors to move into.
To name a few, Katowice has attracted foreign companies of Mentor Graphics (200 employees in the R&D branch), Capgemini (1300 workers of BPO and ITO in two offices), PwC (first Polish audit shared service center employs 300 people), Rockwell Automation (multi-functional plant where 530 employees are hired in several departments).
In 2010, Katowice was participated in the IBM initiative, Smarter Cities. For several weeks, two groups of the company’s managers (Executive Service Corps) were recognizing crucial areas for the City development. „In our opinion, Katowice is better and better marked by investors thanks to investments, business support and promotion. We are pleased the City took part in the Executive Service Corps’ project, which enabled our managers to advise on Katowice’s growth and image” – said Jolanta Jaworska, IBM Central and Eastern Europe Governmental Programs Director.
fDi Magazine has more than 15 000 active corporate readers who are provided with an up-to-date image of the changing global investment map. It is dedicated to crossborder investment. According to the Magazine’s researches, 39% of fDi readers are Chief Executive Officers.
* Katowice was classified as the small city according to the researchers’ criteria (small cities – population of between 250 000 and 500 000).