When Kearney in April released its global 2025 Foreign Direct Investment Confidence Index, Singapore’s drop from No. 12 to No. 15 was noted, based in part on its reliance on trade in a sudden era of nationalism. The United States, Canada and the United Kingdom finished 1-2-3.
Then again: Singapore is a mere city-state, duking it out with the likes of massive countries such as the powers above as well as India, China and South Korea.
When Site Selection examined Singapore through the annual Global Best to Invest Top Metros prism of our proprietary corporate project data for the past five years; the Kearney 2024 Global Cities Report; Mori Foundation’s Global Power City Index 2024; IMD’s Smart City Index 2024; and startup ecosystem rankings from Startup Genome and Startup Blink, the city-state was where you’d expect to find it: No. 1. Next come Shanghai, Seoul, Barcelona and Dubai. The scorecard looked only at metros outside the United States.
Udai Panicker, Singapore country manager for advisory firm Tractus, says Singapore “continues to successfully marry its historical heart as a trading hub with quality infrastructure, smart technologies and attractive market entry policies for businesses across various sectors. Over the years, because of its ability to draw in so many of the world’s top companies here, it has also become a hub for top talent.” While its small size and high costs can be challenges, “it continues to be the ‘top of mind’ investment destination for MNCs and other investors because of the ecosystem it has created,” Panicker says. Its eternally pragmatic approach to geopolitics and strong relationships with both China and the United States bode well for its ability to remain a stable business environment and “keep punching far above its weight in the global economy,” he says. “Singapore’s EDB says that investment commitments actually rose in 2024 by 6% year over year to S$13 billion [US$9.8 billion].”
Singapore is a hub for a number of sectors. Why shouldn’t it be an AI hub too? That’s what the Singapore Economic Development Board is aiming for. Salesforce wants it too, which is why the company announced in March it would be investing $1 billion in Singapore over the next five years as the region digitizes and as the company brings its AI offering Agentforce to market. The move comes after Salesforce in 2019 expanded its AI Research team internationally and chose Singapore as its first overseas AI Research hub location.
“We are in an incredible new era of digital labor where every business will be transformed by autonomous agents that augment the work of humans, revolutionizing productivity and enabling every company to scale without limits,” said Salesforce Chair and CEO Marc Benioff. “Singapore is at the forefront of this shift, and as the world’s largest provider of digital labor through our Agentforce platform, Salesforce is thrilled to expand our work with the business community and our longtime partners in the region to drive innovation, productivity and growth.”
“Salesforce’s initiatives in AI research and workforce development will strengthen our ecosystem by catalyzing innovation for key industries and corporates based in Singapore,” added Singapore Economic Development Board Managing Director Jermaine Loy.
Tractus Co-Founder and Managing Director John Evans says that while Shanghai may be a leading commercial center, he’s surprised it ranks so highly. It may be a case of index data not keeping pace with the news.
“The city itself has fantastic infrastructure, but the economic trends, political issues and increasing bureaucratic/administrative issues have continued to drive an expatriate exodus and have resulted in a dearth of new FDI coming in,” Evans writes from a busy airport lounge. “That is not to say it is a bad place to invest, just one that is being challenged by the geopolitical and economic issues of our times. What should be the world’s leading city for FDI has slid backwards and is not living up to its growth potential as an Asian FDI destination.
“For Seoul, I would say the opposite,” he says. “The U.S.-China tensions have spurred interest from both Asia and the USA to strengthen cross-border trade and investment from long-standing economic and political partners. Seoul has proactively positioned itself to become a leading center of commerce in Asia and is increasingly becoming the destination of choice for FDI in East Asia.”
The UK and Ireland Top Countries List
If you followed the rise of Salesforce office towers alone, you’d find yourself in a number of this year’s Global Best to Invest Top Countries: The United Kingdom, United States and Germany top the overall list, trailed by Canada, Ireland and Australia. The company has towers in multiple U.S. cities as well as London, Dublin and a forthcoming tower in Sydney.
Country rankings are based on an index of indices that incorporates findings from the past two calendar years of corporate project data in Site Selection’s Conway Projects Database; the Milken Institute Global Opportunity Index 2025; the UN Development Program Human Development Index; IMD World Competitiveness Rankings – 2024; OECD FDI Inward Position (Table 4) 2024- FDI inflow; the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) Global Innovation Index 2024; and the DHL Global Connectedness Index 2024
As it happens, UK Minister for Investment Poppy Gustafsson in early April signed a new partnership with none other than Global Corporate Banking Head Elaine Lam of OCBC, Singapore’s second largest bank, to facilitate £10 billion (US$ )of investment into the UK by 2030 in such priority growth sectors as energy, infrastructure and real estate.
“We have the most open, stable and connected economy in the world,” said Gustafsson, “and our Plan for Change will encourage more international companies to invest here, delivering long-term growth that supports good, skilled jobs across the country.”
Ireland leads the way in the Global Best to Invest per capita rankings, followed by the United States and the United Kingdom. In March, as Irish Prime Minister Micheál Martin paid a visit to the White House, Ireland IDA Chief Executive Michael Lohan visited with me from New York as the agency launched a new five-year strategy that aims to attract 1,000 new investments worth €250 billion; scale R&D and innovation to €7 billion; upskill 40,000 people and create 75,000 new jobs in priority sectors.
“Undoubtedly, we’ve seen a significant change in tone in international relations,” Lohan said when asked about the building level of rancor brought on by U.S. tariffs. “We’re a firm believer in open policies and having free trade flows. Investors need to have a level of certainty. That’s become quite obvious if it wasn’t before.”
Reiterating the longstanding and prosperous connections between the two countries, Lohan said, “Ireland is a gateway for U.S. companies to Europe and the world, and indeed Irish companies are investing in the U.S. We want to make sure U.S. and Irish companies continue to internationalize and grow. The continuation of that is going to be important, notwithstanding its being challenged at the moment. That pragmatic, business approach will be at the center of decision-making.”
Known for its industrial warehouse portfolio that includes this site at Heathrow, UK real estate investment trust SEGRO in March announced a major data center JV with Pure Data Centres in Park Royal that prompted UK Secretary of State for the Department of Science, Innovation & Technology the Rt. Hon. Peter Kyle to call it “another powerful endorsement of Britain as a home for tech investment, which will not only bolster the local economy and create job opportunities but also pave the way for a digital and AI-powered future.”
Photo courtesy of SEGRO
METHODOLOGY & SOURCES FOR TOP METROS: Conway Projects Database project data project data outside the U.S., 2020 – 2024; Kearney 2024 Global Cities Report; Global Power City Index 2024, Mori Foundation; IMD Smart City Index 2024; Global Startup Ecosystem Report 2024, Startup Genome; Startup Blink Global Startup Ecosystem Report 2024
METHODOLOGY & SOURCES FOR TOP COUNTRIES: Conway Projects Database data 2023-2024, evaluated by tally, investment and jobs and by projects per capita, investment per capita and jobs per capita; Milken Institute Global Opportunity Index 2025 (overall rank); UN Development Program Human Development Index; IMD World Competitiveness Rankings – 2024; OECD FDI Inward Position (Table 4) 2024- FDI inflow; World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) Global Innovation Index 2024; DHL Global Connectedness Index 2024
