< Previous68 MAY 2021 S I T E S EL E C T I O N THE TIME-PLACE CONTINUUM: COSTA RICA OPERATIONS HELP COMPANIES OUTRUN THE SUN For year, multinationals have strategically located sites in places designed to serve internal and external customers effectively in real time, and pass things off to another time zone as the planet rotated into the next region’s work day. It was called following the sun. But when you find a strong location with the right people and infrastructure, why pass things along at all? Costa Rica today is home to over 81,000 jobs in the knowledge-intensive services sector. The country has seen $4.9 billion growth in export of knowledge-intensive services, with 98% of companies using work-from- home systems. The country was welcoming remote work and hybrid work arrangements long before a pandemic force the world’s hand to do the same. It was also welcoming a diverse array of industry sectors, which has proved fruitful in its own right. 600% Growth, More On the Way In a March 2021 webinar on near- shoring, Leonardo Framil, market unit lead, LATAM, for Accenture, spoke of the company’s first arrival in the country via an acquisition in 2012, when a single site had 300 people, mostly offering graphic design and web marketing services. “After nine years, we have increased our headcount more than 600%,” he said, noting there was no other country in Accenture’s network that’s seen growth like that. Moreover, he said, the company has 300 open positions, and expected to be at the 2,500 mark by the end of March and 3,000 people by the end of 2021. The site will be positioned soon as Accenture’s third largest Latin America operation behind only Brazil and Argentina and ahead of Mexico, Chile and Colombia. “I think there is a clear demonstration of our clients’ interest in near-shoring alternatives,” Framil said, noting more than 150 mostly virtual client visits to the Costa Rica site, which now serves more than 50 world-class corporate clients around the globe. The digital transformation of business is one overarching reason for the prodigious growth, he said, but “in the case of Costa Rica no doubt it is completely related to the quality of the human capital that allowed us through a continuous innovation mindset to evolve our operation” from traditionally starter-level services to transformational and value- added services in marketing campaigns and digital finance, among other fields. “Central Costa Rica became a global digital production center of excellence,” he said, “and we are even more bullish about the future” as the rest of the world rushes to catch up. In March, San Francisco Bay Area- based software company Autodesk announced the opening of a new Autodesk office for the Latin America region based in San Jose, Costa Rica. The new hub’s inside sales professionals and other teams will drive growth across Latin America. “We selected Costa Rica for our Latin America hub because of its global business environment and talent pool, ability to support multiple Americas languages, and its vibrant multicultural capital which offers a great quality of life for our employees,” said Morgan Kirkland, senior director of inside sales and site leader for the Americas, when the office opened. Reached by email in April, Kirkland NEAR-SHORED SER VICES Customer experience (CX) technology and solutions provider Concentrix announced this spring it is creating more than 1,000 new jobs in Costa Rica. Images courtesy of Concentrix S I T E S E L E C T I O N MAY 2021 69 told me, “The Costa Rica sales initiative is a key priority for the Americas sales strategy. While a number of LATAM metropolitan markets were considered in the evaluation, Costa Rica has a proven track record supporting inside sales operations for both for LATAM and U.S. businesses. Ultimately, San José is a safe city with attractive labor costs and a strong higher education system that will expedite sales growth in the aforementioned markets.” Asked how workforce in particular was evaluated, he said, “A number of considerations were evaluated in the assessment of skills-based talent. These attributes spanned across labor costs, access to public transportation, competitor presence and density of higher education.” Costa Rica’s savvy in knowing how to manage remote work was an advantage too. “Autodesk is the midst of deploying a formalized hybrid approach,” Kirkland said. “However, the pandemic accelerated this process. The deployment of our Costa Rica sales operations allowed us to effectively recruit, hire, and retain talent during a time when many companies could not.” Finally, I asked him what he knows about Costa Rica now that he didn’t know before. He just had one thing to say: “The Costa Rica way of life,” he said. “Pura Vida.” Concentrix Likes Costa Rica Concentration of Talent In March 2021, customer experience (CX) technology and solutions provider Concentrix, which first landed in Costa Rica in 2005, announced it was creating 1,000 new jobs this spring in sales and tech support, as well as filling numerous professional and executive positions from operations managers to support engineers. “Costa Rica is consolidating itself as a strategic site for us, so in 2021 we will be on a constant lookout for staff in several cities,” said Juan Pablo Guzmán, country leader for Concentrix. “The level of job commitment and the quality customer service we found in this country led us to reinforce the local operation. We decided, at a critical moment in employment, to offer concrete solutions for reactivating the economy and open up jobs with the best market conditions.” As additional support for those wishing to work for Concentrix, the company has designed ILab, a program that helps candidates gain confidence in the use of English, giving them the possibility of being hired for bilingual accounts. The initiative, launched in November 2019 at no cost to students, has already graduated 90 people, of which 68% have started to work at Concentrix. I recently conducted this Q&A with Manfred Kissling, group vice president and GM for Latin America & Caribbean for Concentrix: What is it about your Costa Rican operations that compares favorably vs. some of the other countries in which you do business? Manfred Kissling: Costa Rica is a strategic location for us. It is a country with a long democratic tradition, a high level of education, safety and very well connected with the world, both digital and physical, and offers a wealth of talented, experienced people and leaders. It is home to some of the most important global clients Concentrix has. With the uncertainty in the world due to protectionism, safety, and health matters, over the last two years the value proposition of the country has become even stronger, allowing us to grow at the fastest pace we have for years. The strong management of the COVID pandemic in the country allowed us to keep our people and clients safe and happy. It was a great example and one of the reasons we plan to keep on investing in a country that invests in its people. We noted a 1,300-job expansion in late 2020, and now there is another 1,000-job expansion that mentions multiple cities in which you want to grow your headcount. Which cities are you looking to develop the most? Manfred Kissling: Currently we have operations in Heredia and San Jose, and we plan to keep on growing in these locations. We also have plans to leverage our proprietary Home Office Technology to grow permanent Work-At-Home in a safe and efficient way. With this and the quality of infrastructure and education across the whole country, our plan is to grow beyond the greater metro areas, bringing opportunities to people in different communities throughout the country. Tell me how the ILab program was created. Is this the type of innovation that global Concentrix might deploy at its other sites around the world? Manfred Kissling: It’s in Concentrix’s DNA to be fanatical about our customers and staff. iLAB is a program created to invest in our future Costa Rican staff. The program allows people to polish their English to improve their skills, feel better about their competence and make customers happier. It’s a win- win-win proposition for us. Our people win because we help them polish a very important skill for life, Concentrix wins because it’s one more action to show our people we walk the talk, and our clients win as we continually improve their customers’ experiences. It’s consistent with our plan to grow our business in the country. The program is already implemented in Costa Rica and Colombia. Our plan now is to expand across other countries in Latin America based on the success we have had. What do other multinationals need to know about Costa Rica’s competitive advantages that they might not know? Manfred Kissling: Let me share an anecdote. Between 2003 and 2005 I was Director of PROCOMER. That is the government institution responsible for managing the Free Trade Zones 70 MAY 2021 S I T E S EL E C T I O N and helping build capacity in local companies to compete in world markets. Back then the services industry was much smaller, however the questions were the same. Well, after nearly years, the country has multiplied the industry -fold. e reason for this success relies on the education system, the access of people to the digital world and the close ties between the Costa Rica and U.S. economies. Intel Still Feels at Home Among the pioneers in near-shoring in Costa Rica was Intel, whose portfolio over the years has evolved to now employ more than , people at two large centers of excellence: the country’s largest R&D center and Intel´s only Megalab of its kind outside the USA; and a global services center that performs multifunctional business processes supporting fi nance, human resources, sales and marketing, quality and IT across the globe. Now a new chapter is set to begin. e company announced in December it will invest $ million over three years to start assembly and test operations in Costa Rica. e investment is anticipated to create more than new jobs in the coming months, and the facility will begin to operate in the second half of at the company’s campus in Heredia. It can’t come soon enough in a world now facing a semiconductor shortage. “Intel continually evaluates its operations around the world to ensure that we have the right capacity to supply global demand,” said Ileana Rojas, general manager of Intel Costa Rica, at the December announcement. “We will start the assembly and test facilities in Costa Rica to expand our global capacity so we can continue fulfi lling Intel customer’s needs. e existing infrastructure, synergy with the test operations that already exist on-site, the talent, the free trade zone regime, and legal environment gave Intel a favorable option to start its assembly capacity in Costa Rica.” “For Costa Rica, Intel symbolizes a pioneer in the high-tech industry that opened the door for many companies to establish in our country, similarly attracted by the talent of our people, our most valuable asset,” said Costa Rica Minister of Foreign Trade Andrés Valenciano. With a history of constant transformation that today translates into a diverse range of processes, the local facility is well-positioned to service the global marketplace competitively, with elevated resilience and value- added. Such high-level performance is particularly important in a challenging context driven by Industry ., and further accelerated by the COVID pandemic.” Timothy Scott Hall, manager of government aff airs and public relations at Intel Costa Rica, tells me resilience and adaptability are key characteristics of Costa Rican talent. “ ose features have allowed Intel several positive transitions, starting with manufacturing, moving to value- added services, a design center and now, having the previous three, adding manufacturing again,” he says. “Our main ingredient has been the Costa Rican human talent that has been able to adapt and be resilient during these stages.” Asked how the company is able to continue growing talent when so many other companies are also expanding there, he says simply, “Intel is the best place to work. We have a close relationship with universities in the country and have a very attractive total compensation system.” But collaboration is abundant too. “ ere are collaborative schemes, where our direct work and others through CINDE allow the private sector to unify eff orts to increase the quantity and quality of human talent required by companies,” he says. “We must continue to work in that direction, because of the growth that the local ecosystem has had.” Meanwhile, the natural ecosystem is as strong as the metaphorical one, and off ers another example of Intel and Costa Rica as a pioneering pair: e Costa Rica site is Intel’s fi rst Carbon Neutral certifi ed operation in the corporation. “Intel Corporation has Corporate Social Responsibility as an intrinsic component of the way of doing business, and we see that as a whole, not in a particular way in each of the places where we operate,” explains Hall. “ at is why we launched the RISE goals [Responsible, Inclusive, Sustainable and Enabling]. ese are global goals, which will allow us to remain a responsible corporate citizen.” e message to multinationals? A near-shoring strategy motivated by redundancy and fl exibility may quickly evolve to a multifaceted global leadership role when the location is in Costa Rica. With the uncertainty in the world due to protectionism, safety, and health matters, over the last two years the value proposition of Costa Rica has become even stronger, allowing us to grow at the fastest pace we have for years.” — Manfred Kissling, Group Vice President and GM, Latin America & Caribbean, Concentrix With the uncertainty in the world due to companies to compete in world markets. This Investment Report was prepared under the auspices of CINDE, the Costa Rican Investment Promotion Agency. For more information, visit the new CINDE website at cinde.org. S I T E S E L E C T I O N MAY 2021 71 Unique indices highlight the top countries and metro areas in terms of their outlook for corporate investment. Is a global economy wrung out from a historic pandemic ready to be refreshed and rejuvenated? Site Selection’s refreshed Global Best to Invest rankings off er some guideposts for the way back. First, we present our country rankings by fi ve world regions — in cumulative and per-capita terms — based on the following sources: • Conway Data Projects Database data - • Milken Institute Global Opportunity Index (business perception rank and overall rank) • World Bank Doing Business rankings • World Economic Forum Global Competitiveness Index • WEF Economic Transformation Readiness Report • WEF Global Competitiveness Index time series (most recent fi ve years) • UN Development Program Human Development Index • OECD Inward FDI • Frontier Tech Readiness Index Each country is listed with its lead investment promotion agency name and website. We also list the Global Top Countries Overall (topped by the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Australia and Germany) and Global Top Countries Per Capita, led by the U.S., Ireland, Canada, Australia and the UK. Next come the Global Best to Invest Top Metro Areas, also presented in separate cumulative and per-capita rankings, with their respective regional and local economic development organizations. In this case, we’ve broken out China as a sixth world region unto itself. Why? Because there are simply so many vibrant metro economies to keep track of. After all, the country is now home to a third of the world’s billionaires — more than , in total, which is more than the totals of the next three countries (U.S., India and Germany) put together. Another reason? Seven of the busiest airports in the world are now in China, led by No. Guangzhou Bai Yun International Airport in southeast China, named the busiest passenger airport in the world in by Airports Council International (ACI), moving ATL out of the top ranking for the fi rst time since . e number of large and medium cities in China still catches some by surprise: More than have million people or more. So it’s no wonder that Milken Institute, the creator of the respected by ADAM BRUNS adam.bruns@siteselection.com 20 21 B2I GL OBAL RANKINGS72 MAY 2021 S I T E S EL E C T I O N Best-Performing Cities Index for the U.S., developed a Best-Performing Cities China Index several years ago. It’s one part of our ranking methodology for metros, which also includes Conway Data Projects Database data -, Startup Genome’s Global Startup Ecosystem report and Kearney’s Global Cities report. Unlike the country-level rankings, the U.S. and Canada were excluded since they have their own metro-area rankings on our editorial calendar, and Mexican metros were placed within the Latin America & Caribbean region group. NOTE: In some cases the designated agency for a given metro area (e.g. Santiago in Chile and Warsaw in Poland) is the national government agency. Indicators on the Road to Recovery A comeback is on everyone’s mind. And it’s needed, even in leading countries. U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis data released this spring show international companies invested $ billion into the United States in . It sounds like plenty — and it’s % of the entire world’s total FDI fl ow of $ billion last year — but it’s the lowest level in over years, part of a % global drop in FDI. A separate report from UNCTAD pegs FDI fl ows to the U.S. last year at only $ million, while China welcomed $ billion and India’s total rose by % (the highest percentage uptick in the world) to $ billion. Also bucking the global trend, slight upticks in FDI occurred in Israel, Japan and the Philippines. According to the Global Business Alliance, an organization that advocates for an open economy that welcomes international companies to invest in America, international fi rms employ . million U.S. workers, % of the American manufacturing workforce and account for % of all new U.S. manufacturing jobs over the past fi ve years. What about the rest of the world? e fourth annual Organizational Resilience Index report from the British Standards Institution surveyed senior leaders around the globe and found % of businesses in the UK, U.S. and India expect fi nancial performance to improve this year, with the strongest confi dence in a comeback among executives in the built environment space, followed by health care, food and automotive. e Global Opportunity Index from Milken Institute, based on indicators, focuses on the status and promise of Latin American nations among the world’s emerging and developing economies, fi nding the most promise in Chile, Uruguay, Costa Rica, Mexico and Panama, in that order. A key data partner in this year’s Global Best to Invest rankings is global consultancy Kearney, whose SOURCES: Conway Data project data 2016-2020; Milken Institute Global Opportunity Index 2021 (business perception rank and overall rank); World Bank Doing Business rankings; World Economic Forum Global Competitiveness Index; WEF Economic Transformation Readiness Report 2020; WEF Global Competitiveness Index time series (most recent fi ve years); UN Development Program Human Development Index 2020; OECD Inward FDI 2019; Frontier Tech Readiness Index 2021 Global Best to Invest TOP 10 COUNTRIES 1. UNITED STATES SelectUSA selectusa.gov 2. CANADA Invest in Canada investcanada.ca 3. UNITED KINGDOM UK Department of International Trade great.gov.uk 4. AUSTRALIA Australian Trade & Investment Commission austrade.gov.au/International/invest 5. GERMANY Germany Trade & Invest gtai.de 6. IRELAND IDA Ireland idaireland.com 7. NETHERLANDS Netherlands Foreign Investment Agency investinholland.com 8. BELGIUM Invest in Belgium business.belgium.be 9. SWEDEN Business Sweden business-sweden.com 10. CHINA Ministry of Commerce, People’s Republic of China english.mofcom.gov.cn TOP 10 COUNTRIES PER CAPITA 1. UNITED STATES 2. IRELAND 3. CANADA T4. AUSTRALIA T4. UNITED KINGDOM 6. SWEDEN 7. DENMARK Ministry of Foreign A airs of Denmark investindk.com 8. FINLAND Business Finland businessfi nland.fi T9. NETHERLANDS T9. BELGIUM74 MAY 2021 S I T E S EL E C T I O N SOURCES: Conway Data project data 2016-2020; Milken Institute Global Opportunity Index 2021 (business perception rank and overall rank); World Bank Doing Business rankings; World Economic Forum Global Competitiveness Index; WEF Economic Transformation Readiness Report 2020; WEF Global Competitiveness Index time series (most recent fi ve years); UN Development Program Human Development Index 2020; OECD Inward FDI 2019; Frontier Tech Readiness Index 2021 CHINA TOP METROS 1. SHANGHAI METRO AREA Invest Shanghai investsh.org.cn 2. BEIJING Invest Beijing invest.beijing.gov.cn/english 3. SHENZHEN Commerce Bureau of Shenzhen Municipality commerce.sz.gov.cn/ szinvest/index.html 4. HANGZHOU Hangzhou Investment Promotion Bureau tzcj.hangzhou.gov.cn 5. WUHAN Hubei China en.hubei.gov.cn Global Business Policy Council in March conducted a webinar about the release of the Kearney FDI Confi dence Index. “ e very nature of FDI and its role in corporate global value chains may well be undergoing the most dramatic strategic rethink since the global expansionary period at the turn of the century when this Index was fi rst created,” said Kearney, whose Global Business Policy Council Founder Paul Laudicina founded the Index in . Derived from interviews with top CEOs and CFOs around the world about their FDI intentions over the next three years, the top countries in Kearney’s newest ranking align neatly with our own, with the U.S., Canada, Germany and the UK (up from No. ) taking the top four spots in that order. Spain popped up two spots to No. , the Netherlands rose three spots to No. and the UAE climbed four spots to No. . Tax environment, tech innovation capabilities and regulatory quality are the top factors in location decisions among Kearney respondents. “FDI fl ows have not been spared the shock waves of the pandemic, and the trend has continued of fl ight to safety,” said Laudicina. But other signals were afoot already, driven by technology, geopolitics, trade frictions, national procurement policies and the diminished signifi cance of labor arbitrage as factories become more automatized and customization grows. is has compelled production to move closer to the end user, the consumer, Laudicina said. “All of this has been leading to an increasing fragmentation of global supply chains,” he said. “Frankly, not since the late s have we seen such a global strategic recalibration by business.” Missing Players? Surprisingly, India is nowhere to be found in the top . Even taking the shrinking FDI pie and the fl ight to safety into account, “I found it striking that a number of very signifi cant developing economies weren’t included on the index,” said Erik Peterson, partner and managing director of the Global Business Policy Council. However, the Index Asia Paci c BEST TO INVEST OVERALL 1. AUSTRALIA Australian Trade & Investment Commission austrade.gov.au/International/invest 2. CHINA Ministry of Commerce, People’s Republic of China english.mofcom.gov.cn 3. JAPAN Japan External Trade Organization (JETRO) jetro.go.jp/en 4. NEW ZEALAND New Zealand Ministry of Business, Innovation & Employment newzealandnow.govt.nz 5. INDIA Invest India investindia.gov.in BEST TO INVEST PER CAPITA 1. AUSTRALIA 2. NEW ZEALAND 3. JAPAN 4. SINGAPORE EDB Singapore edb.gov.sg 5. CHINA BEST TO INVEST TOP METROS 1. SINGAPORE SINGAPORE Singapore Economic Development Board edb.gov.sg 2. AUSTRALIA SYDNEY METRO AREA Invest NSW invest.nsw.gov.au 3. SOUTH KOREA SEOUL METRO AREA Invest Seoul investseoul.com/v2/eng 4. AUSTRALIA MELBOURNE Invest Victoria invest.vic.gov.au 5. INDIA DELHI NATIONAL CAPITAL REGION Invest India investindia.gov.in/state/delhi S I T E S E L E C T I O N MAY 2021 75 Eastern Europe & Central Asia BEST TO INVEST OVERALL 1. RUSSIA Invest in Russia invest-rf.com 2. HUNGARY Hungarian Investment Promotion Agency hipa.hu/main 3. POLAND Polish Investment & Trade Agency paih.gov.pl/en 4. CZECH REPUBLIC CzechInvest, Business & Investment Development Agency czechinvest.org/es 5. SLOVAKIA Slovak Investment & Trade Development Agency, Invest in Slovakia sario.sk/en/invest-slovakia BEST TO INVEST PER CAPITA 1. ESTONIA Enterprise Estonia, Estonian Investment Agency investinestonia.com 2. HUNGARY 3. SLOVAKIA 4. CZECH REPUBLIC 5. LITHUANIA Invest Lithuania investlithuania.com BEST TO INVEST TOP METROS 1. HUNGARY BUDAPEST METRO AREA Hungarian Investment Promotion Agency hipa.hu 2. CZECH REPUBLIC PRAGUE METRO AREA Czech Invest czech-invest.eu 3. RUSSIA MOSCOW METRO AREA Moscow City Investment Agency en.investmoscow.ru 4. ROMANIA BUCHAREST METRO AREA InvestRomania investromania.gov.ro 5. POLAND WARSAW METRO AREA Polish Investment & Trade Agency paih.gov.pl SOURCES: Conway Data project data 2016-2020; Milken Institute Global Opportunity Index 2021 (business perception rank and overall rank); World Bank Doing Business rankings; World Economic Forum Global Competitiveness Index; WEF Economic Transformation Readiness Report 2020; WEF Global Competitiveness Index time series (most recent fi ve years); UN Development Program Human Development Index 2020; OECD Inward FDI 2019; Frontier Tech Readiness Index 2021 Africa & the Middle East BEST TO INVEST OVERALL 1. ISRAEL Israel Ministry of Economy & Industry, Invest in Israel www.investinisrael.gov.il 2. SOUTH AFRICA Department of Trade, Industry & Competition, Republic of South Africa Investsa.gov.za 3. UNITED ARAB EMIRATES UAE Ministry of Economy www.economy.gov.ae 4. SAUDI ARABIA Saudi Arabia Ministry of Investment, Invest Saudi investsaudi.sa 5. OMAN Sultanate of Oman Ministry of Commerce & Industry, Invest Easy Business.gov.om BEST TO INVEST PER CAPITA 1. ISRAEL 2. UNITED ARAB EMIRATES 3. SOUTH AFRICA 4. BAHRAIN Bahrain Economic Development Board, EDB Bahrain bahrainedb.com 5. SAUDI ARABIA BEST TO INVEST TOP METROS 1. UNITED ARAB EMIRATES DUBAI-SHARJAH-AJMAN METRO AREA Invest in Sharjah investinsharjah.ae/en Dubai FDI www.dubaifdi.gov.ae Ajman Department of Economic Development www.ajmanded.ae/en/ 2. ISRAEL TEL AVIV METRO AREA Tel Aviv-Yafo Economic Development Authority ta-eda.co.il 3. UNITED ARAB EMIRATES ABU DHABI Abu Dhabi Investment O ce investinabudhabi.ae 4. KENYA NAIROBI METRO AREA Kenya Investment Authority invest.go.ke 5. NIGERIA LAGOS METRO AREA Lagos Global lagosglobal.org76 MAY 2021 S I T E S EL E C T I O N is a snapshot, he pointed out, “and my guess is we’ll see the balance shift again in the future.” He also pointed out that of the top economies, fi ve showed increased optimism for : UAE, Norway, Austria, Portugal and Denmark — several of which show well in the Global Best to Invest rankings. e Kearney report also zoomed in on the issue of data nationalism, with many respondents concerned about the high costs associated with an increase in data regulations and data privacy rules imposed by national governments. Compliance costs total up to $ million for % of respondents, and between $ million and $ million for % of them. Ettore Pastore, the global and EMEA Leader for Kearney’s fi nancial services practice, emphasized the fl ight to safety, but also the fl ight to discovery: “FDI occurs only when there is a very high content of innovation,” he said. “ is of course is logically correlated to the developed markets. COVID has exacerbated these trends. In my opinion, consciously or not, investors are positioning themselves in the markets where massive government investments are coming. If you put together the eff ect of government and private investments, you can get very interesting results for the economy.” But it will take some opening up, said Laudicina, even in an era of shutting down. “At the same time we close borders to protect ourselves,” he said, “the only way we can sustain ourselves is to cooperate across borders. FDI will continue to be an extraordinarily important mechanism for advancing economic prospects, and if the developing world is not to experience a lost decade, it’s going to take a degree of cooperation, not just in terms of policies governments take, but in resisting the temptation to come up with nationalist recommendations.” He cited recent statements and proactive policy actions from South Africa President Cyril Ramaphosa to the eff ect that “South Africa missed the fi rst three industrial revolutions, and it can’t aff ord to miss the fourth one.” With a reduced fl ow of FDI dollars, said Laudicina, the importance of collaboration among IPAs, industry and government to attract investment will grow. “Most countries want to sell what they have on the shelf, rather than take a sharp pencil and make a decision about what they should be selling to be competitive.” It will require an extraordinary amount of eff ort, he said, to ensure corporate objectives are met, while also ensuring national rejuvenation by both capital and innovation. As the recalibration continues in these most interesting of times, look to these Global Best to Invest locations for emerging opportunities. Latin America & Caribbean BEST TO INVEST OVERALL 1. MEXICO Government of Mexico Ministry of the Economy gob.mx/se 2. BRAZIL Brazilian Trade and Investment Promotion Agency (Apex-Brasil) apexbrasil.com.br 3. CHILE Invest Chile investchile.gob.cl 4. ARGENTINA Agencia Argentina de Inversionses y Comercio Internacional inversionycomercio.org.ar/en 5. COSTA RICA CINDE, Invest in Costa Rica cinde.org/en BEST TO INVEST PER CAPITA 1. MEXICO 2. CHILE 3. COSTA RICA 4. BRAZIL 5. ARGENTINA BEST TO INVEST TOP METROS 1. BRAZIL SAO PAULO METRO AREA Invest Sao Paulo investe.sp.gov.br 2. ARGENTINA BUENOS AIRES METRO AREA InvestBA investba.buenosaires.gob.ar/en 3. MEXICO MEXICO CITY METRO AREA Government of the State of Mexico edomex.gob.mx 4. COLOMBIA BOGOTA METRO AREA Invest in Bogota en.investinbogota.org 5. CHILE SANTIAGO METRO AREA InvestChile investchile.gob.cl SOURCES: Conway Data project data 2016-2020; Milken Institute Global Opportunity Index 2021 (business perception rank and overall rank); World Bank Doing Business rankings; World Economic Forum Global Competitiveness Index; WEF Economic Transformation Readiness Report 2020; WEF Global Competitiveness Index time series (most recent fi ve years); UN Development Program Human Development Index 2020; OECD Inward FDI 2019; Frontier Tech Readiness Index 2021 S I T E S E L E C T I O N MAY 2021 77 Western Europe BEST TO INVEST OVERALL 1. UNITED KINGDOM UK Department of International Trade great.gov.uk 2. GERMANY Germany Trade & Invest gtai.de 3. IRELAND IDA Ireland www.idaireland.com 4. NETHERLANDS Netherlands Foreign Investment Agency investinholland.com 5. BELGIUM Invest in Belgium business.belgium.be BEST TO INVEST PER CAPITA 1. IRELAND 2. UNITED KINGDOM 3. SWEDEN Business Sweden www.business-sweden.com 4. DENMARK Ministry of Foreign A airs of Denmark investindk.com 5. FINLAND Business Finland www.businessfi nland.fi BEST TO INVEST TOP METROS 1. UNITED KINGDOM LONDON METRO AREA London & Partners londonandpartners.com 2. GERMANY BERLIN/BRANDENBURG METRO AREA Berlin Partner berlin-partner.de/en 3. SWEDEN STOCKHOLM METRO AREA Invest Stockholm investstockholm.com 4. FRANCE PARIS METRO AREA Choose Paris Region chooseparisregion.org 5. AUSTRIA VIENNA Vienna Business Agency viennabusinessagency.at SOURCES: Conway Data project data 2016-2020; Milken Institute Global Opportunity Index 2021 (business perception rank and overall rank); World Bank Doing Business rankings; World Economic Forum Global Competitiveness Index; WEF Economic Transformation Readiness Report 2020; WEF Global Competitiveness Index time series (most recent fi ve years); UN Development Program Human Development Index 2020; OECD Inward FDI 2019; Frontier Tech Readiness Index 2021Next >