Flash Points: Hot Business Climates Ignite Worldwide Blaze of Location Moves

Want to know where the world’s hottest business climates are? Just take a look at where companies are placing the most offices, factories and other facilities.

According to Conway Data’s exclusive New Plant database, the United States attracted some 8,029 new and expanded corporate facilities last year. It’s not surprising, then, that some observers say the USA currently is perhaps the world’s top business environment. But many other countries are stoking the fires of competitiveness.

In Europe, Ireland, the UK and the Netherlands are pushing other countries aside for the lion’s share of new facilities. Central and South America’s hottest action is found in Argentina, Brazil and Chile. In Asia, China continues to attract a great deal of interest, but Singapore, Taiwan, the Philippines and other nations are also on many site seekers’ short lists for new facilities.

Actually, China’s torrid location activity of recent years has cooled a bit, experts say. But there’s still intense interest in gaining a foothold in China in light of the long-term potential of accessing its 1.3 billion-plus marketplace. Locating facilities there now underscores the fact that it can make perfect business sense to tap business climates that are merely warm. That’s because business climates are somewhat like investment portfolios, Utrecht, Netherlands-based Ernst & Young Managing Consultant Richard Greene says.

“You’ve got to look at your strategic aims,” he explains. “A company with a group of facilities all over the world is like a portfolio investor, investing in certain places with certain risks. At times you might be willing to invest in a place with higher risk to get greater gains. If your portfolio is balanced, the aggregate result should be pretty good.”

Each of the world’s major economic regions (North America, Europe, Asia and South America) offers expansion-minded firms that same range of options. Here’s a look at each region’s business climate.