< Previous28 NOVEMBER 2018 SI T E S E L E C T IO NA Powerhouseof ProgressHow the capital region of Ohio put together a record-setting decade.bout years ago, a group of community leaders in the Columbus Region got together and posed the following question: Can you build a high-performance economy in the middle of the Midwest?A decade later, they have their answer: an emphatic yes.Following the greatest decade of growth ever experienced in the metropolitan area of . million people, the Columbus Region has proved that sustained economic success is possible in the American Heartland.Amazon admitted as much when it named Columbus one of its fi nalists for the prized HQ project, alongside Atlanta, Dallas, New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Boston, Washington, D.C., and other major cities.“By any measure, we are achieving our goals for growth,” says Kenny McDonald, president and chief economic offi cer of Columbus . “We are nearing the end of our -year plan, and all objectives were achieved two years early.” e goals were ambitious: , net new jobs, an average of $ million in capital investment per year, and a percent increase in per capita income. Check, check, check. e goal was to attract $ billion in new capital investment by . Columbus surpassed that benchmark last year. And now the accolades are pouring in.Inc. magazine recently reported that Columbus is poised to become “the new capital of the Midwest.” Columbus is already America’s th largest city, with just under , people, and won a Smart Cities grant of $ million to help perfect its mobility systems.Site Selection named Columbus a top metro area for expansion projects earlier this year, and its high-quality neighborhoods are achieving national recognition. Niche.com recently ranked the Top Suburbs in America; fi ve of them are in the Columbus area: Dublin, Bexley, Grandview Heights, Upper Arlington and Powell.Want hip locales to attract millennial talent? by RON S TARNERr on. s t ar ner @ site s ele c tion.c omINVESTMENT PROFILE:COLUMBUS, OHIOAPhoto of downtown Columbus courtesy of TourismOhio S I T E S E L E C T I O N NOVEMBER 2018 29This Investment Profile was prepared under the auspices of Columbus 2020. For more information, contact Amy Harman at ah@columbusregion.com or 614-225-6070. On the web, go to www.columbusregion.com.Check that box too. Places like the Short North, German Village and the urban campus of The Ohio State University (OSU) fit the bill. An Intentional Plan to Pursue Job GrowthWhen asked how Columbus achieved this success so quickly, McDonald says, “First and foremost, it was leadership at a business community level. The biggest companies made this a priority to invest in it and get started. Secondly, our elected leaders decided to be more intentional about pursuing job growth; and thirdly, we had professional economic developers at the local, regional and state level lean into this.”Institutions played a role as well, none more so than OSU. David B. Williams, dean of the College of Engineering and executive dean of the Professional Colleges, says the impact of OSU cannot be overstated. “The university grants 15,000 degrees a year,” he says. “About 2,500 engineering degrees are awarded yearly, and over 50 percent of our grads stay in Ohio. Columbus is a magnet for young people who want to pursue a productive career.”OSU excels in advanced materials; manufacturing; smart mobility; aviation manufacturing and drones; biotech including cancer prevention, detection and treatment; and data analytics.On top of that, an OSU education is affordable. “Of the 50 flagship state universities in America, only one had a tuition increase of less than 10 percent over 10 years, and that was OSU,” says Williams. “Over 50 percent of our students graduate with zero debt. This is the most affordable quality education you can get.”Many of those grads go on to lead successful startups. Tom Walker, CEO and president of Rev1 Ventures, a noted accelerator in Columbus, is on track to lead his firm to facilitating $2 billion in economic impact from startups in the region since 2013.“Our philosophy is focused on connecting startups to assets in their own backyard,” says Walker. “We connect them to research institutions, corporations, hospitals, etc., to build innovation programs. That is one of the greatest strengths of Columbus. We are a very collaborative community. That allows us to connect talent to capital.”With 15 Fortune 1000 companies based in Columbus, resources abound, notes Walker. “More capital is available at the seed stage for early stage companies than ever before,” he adds. “Columbus 2020 is a strong partner, as is the Third Frontier program at the state level.” Columbus, in fact, ranks No. 1 in Forbes’ annual list of rising cities for startups.Columbus Joins the Unicorn ClubThe startup ecosystem in Greater Columbus has already produced two unicorns: Root Insurance and CoverMyMeds. Acquired last year by the McKesson Corp., CoverMyMeds is a healthcare software company that creates software to automate the prior authorization process used by some health insurers in the U.S. It was founded in 2008.“Matt Scantland graduated from OSU and started the company here,” says Veronica Knuth, senior director of talent management for CoverMyMeds. “Columbus is centrally located and affords us the ability to attract world-class tech talent. Cultural diversity is here, and Columbus is incredibly affordable. It is a great place to live and grow a family. We have 800 employees now; we hired over 200 in the last year alone. Over the last four months, we hired 140 new folks and promoted 60.”Located at Miranova Place and 41 South High Street in downtown Columbus, CoverMyMeds provides its workers with convenient access to a high quality of life 24/7, notes Knuth. “We are finalizing our plans to build our own campus,” she adds. “We anticipate breaking ground in the Franklinton area just west of downtown in late winter or early spring of next year.”Phase one of the new campus will be 200,000 sq. ft. and will take about three years to complete. “There is a thriving economy here,” Knuth says. “Columbus is a place where you can grow from startup to a large size quickly. The business community is committed to making Columbus a best place to work. That benefits every company here.” David B. Williams, Dean of the College of Engineering and Executive Dean of the Professional Colleges, The Ohio State University30 NOVEMBER 2018 SI T E S E L E C T IO NShenzhen: The world’s hardware capital gets a software upgrade.Many western companies with international expansion ambitions are looking to expand their operations in Asia and considering where to focus. We’ve just returned from a scouting mission to Shenzhen in China’s Guangdong region on behalf of a global IT group, investigating startups with a view to finding cutting-edge technology. This has confirmed huge opportunities for certain international companies which may currently be overlooking the area.By rapidly evolving into a thriving center of artificial intelligence (AI), Shenzhen looks to be an attractive location not only for western AI pioneers, but for manufacturers seeking highly automated operations. From Fishing Village to Economic Powerhouse A subway ride from Hong Kong, Shenzhen has grown from a fishing village of just 300,000 people in the 1980s to 13 million today. It was designated as a Special Economic Zone in 1980. Just 40 years later, it now ranks third in China for economic output, behind Shanghai and Beijing. It’s been dubbed by Financial Times in the past as the “Silicon Valley of Hardware.” It’s known for Apple’s R&D center and the HQs of Huawei, ZTE, Tencent, DJI and TP-Link. With an estimated 90 percent of the world’s electronics manufacturing in the area, it’s long been a top choice for western electronics companies with global manufacturing plans. The wider Guangdong region has historically been known for low-end manufacturing of clothing, beverages, and toys. But times have changed in recent years. China’s average wages have increased around 12 percent annually since 2001, as young workers have demanded better jobs and higher pay. At the same time, the Chinese government’s efforts to improve the environment led to 80,000 factories being penalized in 2017 alone. As a result, international manufacturers have increasingly been shifting their focus from Guangdong — and China generally — to lower-cost southeast Asian countries such as Vietnam, Thailand and Indonesia. The latest developments in Shenzhen, however, may well alter this.by S TE WAR T R ANDALL & EMMA HSUe ditor @ site s ele c tion.c omCHINAShenzhen: The world’s hardware capital gets a software upgrade. S I T E S E L E C T I O N NOVEMBER 2018 31AI innovation From our recent mission to Shenzhen, it’s clear the area is expanding fast from its hardware roots to become a thriving center of innovation in software and AI too. This, in turn, is bringing new levels of automation and efficiency to the manufacturing and logistics industries in Shenzhen and wider Guangdong, putting them back in a strong position to compete with southeast Asia. We visited many of Shenzhen’s ground-breaking companies over the last month. Malong Technologies won first place in Google’s global computer vision contest. Its AI technology beat human vision accuracy and is now helping customers to pre-empt machine failures and defects.Wolf Yuan, the company’s business development director, told us the government has provided not only two 1,700-sq.-m. (18,300-sq.-ft.) floors of rent-free space, but tax breaks and subsidies.“The local government is eager to support this industry, as it’s championed at the national strategic level,” he says. “Since Shenzhen has always been at the forefront of China’s technology development, more AI companies will be setting up offices in the area to take advantage of the subsidies.”With supply chain warehousing and transport vital for efficient manufacturing, Whalehouse — a new Shenzhen company with investment from YF Capital (part of Alibaba), GSR Ventures and Baidu — is pioneering the use of robotics and autonomous guided vehicles (AGV) in China. This is bringing up to 80-percent reductions in labor costs and six-fold increases in space efficiency. According to CTO Jun Zhang, “Space savings, labor savings and ease-of-use are key for autonomous warehouses. We’ve registered international patents for our systems because the market for autonomous logistics is not only in China but in developed countries such as the U.S., Germany and Japan, where rent and labor costs are even higher.”GoodScan is using 3D modeling to reduce package processing from five steps to just one, taking only one second. Its software rapidly obtains millimeter-level measurements of packages’ widths, heights, lengths and weights while simultaneously capturing their barcodes and photos. This efficiently determines transportation, labor and packing needs which, according to CEO Xiao Zhang, increases worker productivity and is saving millions of dollars for customers such as Huawei, JD and Ascendia.Diverse Workforce Extreme Vision runs a marketplace with 6,000 algorithm developers who deploy AI solutions at one-tenth of general market prices. With an average age of 26, many of those developers join straight from school.Co-founder Iris Liu says highly educated job-seekers join startups such as hers because of their desire for self-fulfillment. Company equity and a sense of mission appeal to young workers more than they did to their parents. “Shenzhen’s population is young and diverse because of lenient requirements for residency registration compared with Beijing and Shanghai,” Liu explains. “Also, hiring in Shenzhen emphasizes personal ability above alma mater, network or work experience.” This inclusive culture is rooted in the city, where there are an estimated 7 million unregistered migrant workers. Even amongst the 13 million who are registered, many are first- or second-generation immigrants.Significant Interest What’s happening in Shenzhen won’t appeal to all. Higher wages have still driven some manufacturers out of the area — including companies such as Huawei, Foxconn and HP, which have set up in in Chengdu, as Site Selection documented in November 2017.But the Shenzhen developments are starting to alter this trend and attract significant interest. They’re helping the area to maintain its position as the world center of electronics manufacturing, and to cultivate a talent pool of highly skilled software and AI experts.Our prediction is that clear specialisms will develop in many regions of China — in the way Hainan province is setting its sights on being the center of medtech innovation and medical tourism.Shenzhen’s fast-emerging AI focus — backed by focused government policies — should make it a prime focus for western companies innovating in AI or looking for links with the latest AI technologies. It should also be of interest to broader manufacturing businesses seeking cutting-edge levels of automation.If you’re a western tech or manufacturing company looking for a new base in Asia, we think Shenzhen is well worth a look. Emma Hsu and Stewart Randall are business expansion experts in Intralink’s Shanghai office. Intralink is an international business development consultancy specializing in east Asia. For more information, see www.intralinkgroup.com. 32 NOVEMBER 2018 SI T E S E L E C T IO NForty thousand visitors, a massive sale, jam-packed roads, additional police deployment to manage the crowd — all marked the launch of Ikea’s fi rst store in India in August , affi rming the company’s decision to invest there. Ikea has announced further investment of US$ million in the next three years to open three fulfi llment centers across India.Samsung Electronics drew the attention of the world’s tech community in July , when Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and South Korean President Moon Jae-in inaugurated the “world’s biggest mobile phone manufacturing plant” in the world’s fastest-growing major mobile phone market. Since then, Samsung has announced further investment of $ million to expand production capacity from million to million by . In , Apple started the production of the iPhone SE in India, and in , the company is adding the iPhone s, with the “Made in India” badge on it.With India estimated to reach $ billion in foreign direct investment (FDI) infl ow per annum by , the country is scaling greater heights in an FDI journey that began in , when the East India Company refused to pay a -percent customs duty. at led to a war and the creation of an empire, and marked the beginning of FDI in India.Fast forward to the present (easy to do via the printed word, harder in real life): India received by MADHUR AGG ARWALe ditor @ site s ele c tion.c omINDIA$ billion in FDI in after welcoming $ billion in . UNCTAD reports that India was the th largest recipient of global FDI in and remained among the top three destinations for greenfi eld capital investment, along with the U.S. and China.Globalizing with Growth and InvestmentsIn the past decade, India has emerged as the fastest-growing large economy in the world. India has doubled its GDP to $. trillion within a decade, and is expected to progress as a key economic engine in Asia, just as China shows signs of slowing. Manufacturing and consumer spending are proving to be the main catalysts.According to the IMF, India is projected to generate GDP growth of . percent this year and . percent in , boosted by household spending and business and tax reforms. e services sector has been driving economic growth in India, accounting for . percent of Gross Value Added (GVA) growth. e services sector also attracts the highest overall inbound foreign investments (over percent of all FDI) through IT, banking and communications.India’s rising affl uence is increasing domestic demand and consumption. India’s consumer story is led by its million urban mass consumers, estimated to grow by four times by . 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The Indian government’s main initiatives to achieve this goal are “Make in India” and “Skill India.” The “Make in India” initiative is successfully attracting global companies to invest and set up in India, increasing FDI inflows by 37 percent since its inception.By 2050, over 350 million Indians are projected to migrate to the cities, creating significant pressure on urban centers’ resources. To grow the manufacturing ecosystem while integrating the migrating population, by 2040 it is estimated that India will require $4.5 trillion of investment capital for infrastructure development. The Indian government has already pledged to invest over $1.5 trillion in infrastructure projects across highways, railways, ports, airports, and industrial corridors by 2022. The centerpiece of this ambitious development is the Bharatmala project, the scope of which includes 60,000 km. (37,290 miles) of new roads and highways; development of “50 Economic Corridors” with a total length of 9,000 km. (5,600 miles) to move freight traffic; and creating “100 Smart Cities.”India and China are on their way to being the largest manufacturing hubs of the world by 2030. This will, in turn, shift the focus of global maritime trade from the Pacific to the Indian Ocean. Recognizing such potential, in 2015 the Indian Government announced the Sagarmala project, which consists of setting up new ports, modernizing existing ports, expanding connectivity among ports and road, rail, multimodal logistics parks, pipelines and waterways. This mega-project is seen as the counter-offer to China’s Belt and Road Initiative, creating alternate trade linkages involving India within the Asia-Pacific region.The pillars of ‘3Ds’ — Demand, Demographics and Development — coupled with strong economic performance, and the sheer size of the Indian market, are proving to be a big attraction for global investors to invest in India, while also encouraging Indian companies to expand internationally. Granting permission to foreign firms to invest in almost all the domestic sectors, and simultaneously increasing the threshold of outbound investments, are key growth drivers to both inbound and outbound FDI: Amidst the uncertainties in major trade blocs including North America, European Union, and China, Indian companies are seizing opportunities and maximizing their presence in world markets, thus increasing the projected outbound FDI figures in 2018-19 by $2 billion to $4 billion.Key Reforms and the Road AheadThe abolition of the Foreign Investment Promotion Board — a former government agency responsible for reviewing all potential foreign investment — and the liberalization of foreign investment thresholds for the retail, aviation and biomedical industries are proving to be major catalysts in growing FDI inflow into the country. The newly introduced FDI reforms apply to over 90 percent of the FDI approvals under the automatic approval route.Although it caused temporary disruptions for the domestic economy, the demonetization in 2016, coupled with the introduction of a streamlined tax structure — Harmonized Goods & Services Tax (GST) — in 2017 has showcased the Indian government’s commitment to root out corruption while moving to improve the ease of doing business, resulting in increased investment activities in 2018.When it marks 75 years of independence in 2022, India is projected to be the fourth largest economy in the world. India’s GDP is expected to reach $6 trillion by FY 2027 and achieve upper-middle income status.However, external market factors pose a challenge. Strong import demand, higher oil prices and exchange rate depreciation are becoming less favorable for India, and increasing its trade deficit and current account deficit. As monetary policies in the United States have started “normalizing,” developing economies like India are feeling the pressure of capital outflows, which, along with stricter global financing conditions, will likely test India’s capability for FDI attraction.That said, under Prime Minister Modi’s leadership, India appears to be up to the challenge, and has demonstrated an ability to navigate through many obstacles. As long as the “3Ds” remain intact, India’s future looks bright. Based in New Delhi, Madhur Aggarwal is a managing consultant for Tractus Asia, a strategy and market entry consulting leader in Asia. For more, visit www.tractus-asia.com.36 NOVEMBER 2018 SI T E S E L E C T IO NNew DirectionsThe Federal State of Baden-Württemberg in southwestern Germany — the birthplace of the automobile — is ready to disrupt its own industry.n already visionary German automotive sector in September took a further step into tomorrow at the inauguration of a €-million, -job Test and Technology Center from Daimler located in Immendingen.“Immendingen will play a key role in developing the mobility of the future,” said Dieter Zetsche, chairman of the board of management of Daimler AG and head of Mercedes-Benz Cars, describing the work to be conducted in such areas as alternative drive systems, hybrids, electric vehicles (EVs) and autonomous driving.Daimler and thousands of other companies couldn’t have chosen a better territory for exploration — a unique entrepreneurial ecosystem committed to meaningful, transformative innovation. Baden-Württemberg fi nds itself at the forefront of redefi ning mobility, fully committed to autonomous and emission-free vehicles and leading a strategic dialogue on the future of the automotive industry that includes the personal participation of leading corporate CEOs and board members.“ e automotive future and the future of the state Baden-Württemberg are profoundly linked,” said omas Strobl, deputy prime minister of the federal state of Baden-Württemberg. “In our state the car was invented — that´s our motivation to lead the innovation. We want to develop Baden-Wuerttemberg into the most innovative mobility region of Europe.”With its effi ciency, thought leadership and hunger for innovation, Deputy Minister Strobl’s home state makes a strong case for CASE — the acronym used to describe four chief study areas: connected, autonomous, shared and electric. Automotive manufacturers in the state pour nearly percent of their sales into R&D, helping Baden-Württemberg achieve international prominence as an R&D leader.by ADAM BRUNSadam.br uns @ site s ele c tion.c omINVESTMENT PROFILE:BADEN-WÜRTTEMBERG INTERNATIONALAThe sculpture “Inspiration 911,” created by the artist Gerry Judah, adorns the Porscheplatz corporate campus in Zuffenhausen in Greater Stuttgart, which one can now navigate using a new app — one small part of the e-mobility revolution. In recent years, Porsche has invested around €1 billion in facilities in Greater Stuttgart.Photo courtesy of PorscheThis Investment Profile has been produced under the auspices of Baden-Württemberg International, at the disposal of domestic and foreign companies, research institutes and universities as a central point of contact for all matters relating to internationalization. For more information, call +49(0)711 227 87-18 or visit www.bw-i.de.Test Bed for Tomorrow at one place could embody such vision and foresight perhaps is no surprise, given that this is the state that gave birth to such luminaries as composer Friedrich von Schiller, writer Herman Hesse, philosophers Georg Friedrich Wilhelm Hegel and Martin Heidegger and artist Otto Dix. Nearly as far-ranging as their genius is the state’s geography and topography, encompassing such wonders as the Black Forest, the headwaters of the Danube, Lake Constance and the edge of the Alps, the Rhine Valley and the fertile Neckarland region along the Neckar River. e human fi repower fl owing across those landscapes is no less varied: People from diff erent countries populate a state gaining in its reputation for being international, cosmopolitan and tolerant, even as some territories seem headed in a diff erent direction.When it comes to corporate presence, the state’s capital city of Stuttgart, with an urban area population of . million, is a fertile region, home to Daimler’s global HQ as well as headquarters campuses of such companies as Bosch, Porsche, IBM and Hewlett-Packard. e clustering of high-performance global companies alongside centuries of middle-class, family-led mittelstandfi rms is no accident, and key to Baden-Württemberg’s value proposition:• Industry Leadership: Daimler, Porsche & Audi all run their EV programs and manufacturing in Baden-Württemberg, a state more advanced than most when it comes to practically applying the industrial Internet of ings in the digital factories of tomorrow. e state is home to nearly , EV charging stations — more than percent of all the stations in Germany.• Trust, Reliability and Sustainability: “Made in Germany” has no better exemplar of quality — nowhere else in the world does there exist a higher density of “Hidden Champions” leading their markets ( times more than in the U.S.). e government follows suit, marrying the region’s conservative values with a modern, sustainable and responsible industrial policy ideal for nurturing such fi elds as mobility.• E cient and Pro table: State leaders say it right up front: “We do not believe in low cost or state incentives. Our wealth has been created through the effi ciency of an extremely hard-working, perfectly skilled and well-equipped workforce, looking to do things just a little bit better every single day.”• Soft Landing, Quick Start: Aided by a talent pipeline of , students and apprentices a year coming into the automotive industry, companies also can tap into the well of experience at such fi rms as Eisenmann, ElringKlinger, Dürr, ZF, Bosch, Schuler and many more in order to get operations launched.Yes, the cradle of the automobile is being rocked. But this state is ready to rock on.“We are now about to cross the threshold toward a major disruptive change,” wrote Winfried Kretschmann, prime minister of the State of Baden-Württemberg, earlier this year in laying out the crux of the strategic dialogue. “You might as well say that mobility is currently being re-invented, and this at a never-before-experienced pace.” e reinvention involves places as well as products: e new Daimler center in Immendingen has been built on the site of the former Oberfeldwebel-Schreiber Barracks, and is thus a prime example of the successful conversion of former military sites. “Due to the rapid approval phase, the short construction period and the open and transparent overall process, the Test and Technology Center is regarded as a model project for major construction projects in Germany,” said Daimler.German Chancellor Angela Merkel called the project no less than a model for successful structural change.“As we open the Immendingen Test and Technology Center of Daimler today,” she said in September, “we open a door to the future.” S I T E S E L E C T I O N NOVEMBER 2018 37Baden-Württemberg is home to more than 1,000 suppliers and more than 440,000 automotive jobs.Next >