< PreviousWESTERN EUROPEAUTOMOTIVECompanyMetro AreaCountryInv. US $MillionJobsDaimler/Mercedes Benz Bremen Germany 1,352 Volkswagen Autoeuropa, Lda Lisbon Portugal 829 Jaguar Land Rover Automotive PLC Birmingham United Kingdom 762 1,300Porsche Automobil Stuttgart Germany 761 1,000Jaguar Land Rover Automotive PLC Birmingham United Kingdom 684 700Selected Corporate Facilities Investments, 2015-2017Top Cities 1 Birmingham (West Midlands Metro Area) Metro Area, UK 2 Porto Metro Area, Portugal 3 Stuttgart Region, Germany 4 Frankfurt Rhine-Main Metro Area, Germany 5 Munich, GermanyOverall Rank Country Total score Policy & legislation Tech & Innovation Infrastructure Consumer Acceptance Rank Score Rank Score Rank Score Rank Score1 The Netherlands 27.73 3 7.89 4 5.46 1 7.89 2 6.492 Singapore 26.08 1 8.49 8 4.26 2 6.72 1 6.633 United States 24.75 10 6.38 1 6.97 7 5.84 4 5.564 Sweden 24.73 8 6.83 2 6.44 6 6.04 6 5.415 United Kingdom 23.99 4 7.55 5 5.28 10 5.31 3 5.846 Germany 22.74 5 7.33 3 6.15 12 5.17 12 4.097 Canada 22.61 7 7.12 6 4.97 11 5.22 7 5.308 United Arab Emirates 20.89 6 7.26 14 2.71 5 6.12 8 4.799 New Zealand 20.75 2 7.92 12 3.26 16 4.14 5 5.4310 South Korea 20.71 14 5.78 9 4.24 4 6.32 11 4.38KPMG Autonomous Vehicle Readiness Index18 2018 W O R L D ’ S M O S T C O M P E T I T I V E C I T I E S 2018 W O R L D ’ S M O S T C O M P E T I T I V E C I T I E S 19Adam BrunsSite SelectionMagazine SEVENCAPITAL'S FORTHCOMING ST. MARTIN'S PLACE LUXURY RESIDENCES NEXT TO THE PARK REGIS HOTEL PHOTO COURTESY OF SEVENCAPITALocated in the heart of the country, Birmingham "sits at the center of the ‘Midlands Engine’ and is one of the key drivers of growth across the UK,” says global infrastructure and city consultancy Arcadis. “ e city boasts one of the most productive and mixed economies in the country and, with more green space than any other city in Europe, its fortunes are on an upward trajectory.”Soon to be home to a new high-speed rail hub known as HS2, as well as HS2’s HQ, Birmingham also boasts a thriving international airport, a refurbished rail station district and a healthy mix of corporate project investment and job creation from the likes of Jaguar Land Rover and its constellation of suppliers; Lulu Group; Computer Systems Integration; software fi rm Advanced; and HSBC, whose new 10-story building for a ring-fenced bank will accommodate up to 2,500 staff . ey're part of a fi nancial and professional services cluster in the region that got started a decade ago with Deutsche Bank. e talent is fl owing in fast: e youngest city in Europe, Birmingham’s population is projected to rise by 171,000 to 1.3 million by 2039.“More people are moving here from London and the south-east than any other UK city, and signifi cantly, around half of our graduates are choosing to stay on in the city,” says Waheed Nazir, corporate director, economy, for the Birmingham City Council. ose new residents are attracted by the lifestyle, amenities, aff ordability and a mix of private and public sector: Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs is joining HS2 as a major government employer as it brings 3,500 staff to a hub in Birmingham. On the short list as the new home for UK public broadcasting service Channel 4, the city also will host the 2022 Commonwealth Games.Figures released in June 2018 by the UK Department for International Trade showed the West Midlands — anchored by Birmingham — to be the only UK area seeing growth in both foreign direct investment (FDI) projects and in the jobs those projects create. A total of 171 new FDI projects (up 13 percent) were recorded during 2017/18, with associated jobs reaching 9,424 — a 43-percent increase, and the highest number of new jobs created in any area outside London. HS2, aiming to launch in 2026, reduces Birmingham-London journey times to 38 minutes, with phase two reducing travel times to other UK cities.“What’s genuinely exciting is that Birmingham is not even at the mid-point of its growth curve,” Nazir told Site Selection.BIRMINGHAMUK3rd1st1st3rd2nd1st52.4862° N 1.8904° Welev. 460 ft.UTCUTC+0SECTOR LEADER IN:Top Cities 1 Suzhou Metro Area, China2 Pune Metro Area, India3 Eastern Seaboard Region, Thailand4 Shanghai Metro Area, China5 Delhi National Capital Region, India5 Chongqing, China5 Wuhan, ChinaCompany Metro Area Country Inv. US $Million JobsZhejiang Taizhou Jinqiao Group Co., Ltd. Shanghai China 9,000 Vingroup JSC Hai Phong Vietnam 3,500 Borgward Group AG Jiaxing China 2,901 Saleen Automotive, Inc. Rugao China 2,680 Honda Cars India Ltd. Delhi India 2,412 Selected Corporate Facilities Investments, 2015-2017AUTOMOTIVEASIA PACIFIC“China can position itself as a world leader, with expectations that AVs will be capable of being deployed by 2025-2030. Key drivers include the scale of China’s auto industry as the largest market in the world by production and sales and its focus on technology and innovation, supported by the Made in China 2025 plan.” — Philip Ng, Partner, KPMG in China, in the KPMG AV Readiness Index report20 2018 W O R L D ’ S M O S T C O M P E T I T I V E C I T I E SPUNEINDIAPHOTO: GETTY IMAGESSECTOR LEADER IN:he ninth most populous city in India, and the 101st largest city in the world, Pune is considered one of the fastest growing cities in the Asia Pacifi c. Historically, Pune was known for off ering summer refuge to people in cities such as Mumbai due to its coniferous forest — the city’s higher altitude allows for pleasant weather year-round. But it’s the cities higher aptitude — the area has some of the best engineering schools in the country — that make it a pleasant place to land for companies.Infrastructure projects have improved the city’s connectivity to major ports and airports, especially to those in Mumbai. is led to the fi rst Indian multinationals such as Telco and Bajaj choosing to settle in the city. ese companies were trailblazers for Pune’s reputation as an attractive location, and were swiftly followed by companies such as Tata Motors, Mahindra, Mercedes-Benz, Volkswagen and their respective supplier bases. In early 2017, Indian’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi started to describe Pune as “the Detroit of India.”Manual labor is less expensive compared to automation in India. But lack of automation doesn’t mean compromising on quality. Pune off ers both high-skilled and basic-skilled workers.Construction is booming through the building of new industrial parks and residential areas all over the city, the latter fueled by high-skilled workers and professionals from across India who want to live and work in Pune. However, as I know from living in Pune for two years while working for Volkswagen, ramping up its infrastructure is going to be Pune’s critical challenge for the next decade. On average, 1 million new cars are being registered annually, so traffi c will continue to be an issue of concern, even as carmakers look to make more cars in India.Volkswagen Group India, which has its regional HQ in Pune, told Site Selection in 2018, “Volkswagen has already invested around €825 million in its plant in Pune. e company is studying various options for growth in the future," with expansion at Pune a logical next step. GM plans to invest US$1 billion in India by 2020, primarily to increase the capacity at the Talegaon plant in Pune. Chrysler plans to invest US$513.5 million in Pune to manufacture its Jeep Grand Cherokee. And Mercedes-Benz has decided to manufacture an SUV in Pune.Despite infrastructure concerns, Pune remains one of the top places for investment in India. Next to Pune’s success in becoming one of the most important automotive hubs in the country, it is currently emerging as a prime investment hub for ICT and logistics — sectors worth monitoring.Annika JostmeierConway Advisory18.5161° N73.8616° Eelev. 1,837 ft.ISTUTC+5:303rd4th2nd5th3rd 2018 W O R L D ’ S M O S T C O M P E T I T I V E C I T I E S 21NORTHAMERICAAUTOMOTIVECompany Metro Area Country Inv. US $Million JobsChrysler Windsor, ON Canada 2,000 FCA US LLC Detroit-Warren-Dearborn, MI United States 1,486 700Ford Motor Co. Detroit-Warren-Dearborn, MI United States 1,400 500General Motors Co. Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington, TX United States 1,400 600Toyota Motor Manufacturing, Ky, Inc. Lexington-Fayette, KY United States 1,330 1,209Selected Corporate Facilities Investments, 2015-2017Top Cities 1 Detroit-Warren-Dearborn, MI, USA2 Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, IL-IN-WI, USA3 Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington, TX, USA4 Nashville-Davidson-Murfreesboro- Franklin, TN, USA5 Charlotte-Concord-Gastonia, NC-SC, USA“We aren’t just making a bet on Detroit. We are making a big bet on the future for Ford and the future of transportation.” — Bill Ford, Executive Chairman, Ford Motor Company, June 2018, on the company’s planned campus on redeveloped property in Corktown, where 2,500 Ford employees will work by 2022 22 2018 W O R L D ’ S M O S T C O M P E T I T I V E C I T I E SLATIN AMERICA & CARIBBEANAUTOMOTIVECompanyMetro AreaCountryInv. US $MillionJobsNissan Motor Co. Resende Brazil 1,500 1,500Audi AG Puebla-Tlaxcala Mexico 1,300 Ford Motor Co. Irapuato Mexico 1,300 2,000Ford Motor Co. Chihuahua Mexico 1,100 1,300Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV Goiana Brazil 1,000 3,300Selected Corporate Facilities Investments, 2015-2017Top Cities1 San Luis Potosi, Mexico1 Silao, Mexico3 Queretaro Metro Area, Mexico4 Monterrey Metro Area, Mexico5 Sao Paulo Metro Area, BrazilMexico is the 7th largest producer of vehicles in the world, at 3.9M units. Accounting for 20 percent of Mexico’s manufacturing GDP, the industry’s presence includes 600 Tier-1 operations and 1,200 Tier-2 and Tier-3 operations, producing goods worth $87 billion. SOURCE: PROMÉXICO, AUGUST 20182018 W O R L D ’ S M O S T C O M P E T I T I V E C I T I E S 23AUTOMOTIVECompany Metro Area Country Inv. US $Million JobsBeijing Automotive Group Co., Ltd. Port Elizabeth South Africa 825 PSA Peugeot Citroen Kenitra Morocco 632 Iran Khodro Tehran Iran 448 Linamar Corp. Kenitra Morocco 280 1,000Thyssenkrupp AG Rishon LeZion Israel 220 Selected Corporate Facilities Investments, 2015-2017Top Cities1 Tangiers Metro Area, Morocco2 Kenitra, Morocco3 Lagos Metro Area, Nigeria4 Johannesburg Metro Area, South Africa5 Abu Dhabi, UAE“The PSA Group is setting up a complete ecosystem in Morocco covering the entire value chain. This has no equivalent on the African continent.” — Jean Christophe QUEMARD, Executive Vice President for the Middle East and Africa region at Groupe PSA, on the automotive firm’s investments in Kenitra and Casablanca. The PSA Group in Morocco will eventually generate more than 2,000 direct jobs and 20,000 indirect jobs. AFRICA & MIDDLE EAST24 2018 W O R L D ’ S M O S T C O M P E T I T I V E C I T I E SBUSINES S & FINANCIAL SER VICEShen it comes to economic im-petus in the Philippines, BPO (business process outsourcing) is nearly as big as OFW — the overseas foreign workers whose remittances from hard work and sometimes long years abroad fuel so much of their home country’s economy. With business services, however, the talent gets to stay home.Already contributing 9 percent of the country’s GDP, the sector “is expected to hit a government revenue target of US$25.5 billion and 1.4 million people employed by the year end,” an ASEAN briefi ng by Dezan Shira & Associates reported in April 2017. “All employees in Metro Manila and the rest of the Philippines are college graduates, with college degrees, and are profi cient in English,” yet Manila business services employees command average salaries of between only $300 and $500 a month, wrote Dezan Shira’s Bob Shead. ose fac-tors partially explain the allure of this year’s No. 1 most competitive city in our Business & Financial Services Asia Pacifi c rankings, followed by Sydney, Australia.As in other, more hard-asset-based industries, highly tuned supply chain relationships to the super-charged German economy are among the reasons Budapest and a cluster of Polish cities top the Eastern Europe rankings in this sector. A No-vember 2017 report from Colliers International on BPO and shared services centers (SSC) in Central & Eastern Europe noted that those two sectors’ offi ce take-up was over 60 percent of total offi ce take-up in four of the 20 key cities examined. It also noted potential for pressure in fi nding talent, as BPO/SSC’s demand for jobs already is “the equivalent of 20 percent of total graduate supply in Wroclaw, Bucharest and Krakow.” e analysis gave the edge to the Polish cities when it comes to recent and projected wage growth, hovering around 3-4 percent there compared to two to three times that in Hungary.Companies such as Convergys, Sykes, Telus International and e Offi ce Gurus have long been realizing the benefi ts of El Salvador, where fi rms can realize a host of tax and customs exemptions. Meanwhile, San José, Costa Rica (see profi le on p. 83), has its own claim to LatAm leadership, with Amazon alone employing more than 4,000 in the country as of early 2017, including in such fi elds as risk analysis and software development. e coun-try’s trade minister told e Seattle Times in 2017 that about 27,000 Costa Ricans work in corporate services related to the U.S. market alone. 2018 W O R L D ’ S M O S T C O M P E T I T I V E C I T I E S 25WESTERN EUROPEBUSINESS & FINANCIAL SERVICESCompanyMetro AreaCountryInv. US $MillionJobsWells Fargo & Co. London United Kingdom 394 Nordea Bank Copenhagen Denmark 159 Firstrand Bank Ltd. Cardiff United Kingdom 143 600Citi Belfast United Kingdom 84 600Concentrix Corp./Synnex Corp. Belfast United Kingdom 60 1,000Selected Corporate Facilities Investments, 2015-2017Top Cities 1 Frankfurt Rhine-Main Metro Area, Germany 2 London Metro Area, UK 3 Dublin Metro Area, Ireland 4 Berlin/Brandenburg Metro Area, Germany 5 Amsterdam Metro Area, Netherlands26 2018 W O R L D ’ S M O S T C O M P E T I T I V E C I T I E SGlobal ConnectednessLine thickness indicates the degree of Outbound and Inbound Entrepreneur Connections.SOURCE: STARTUP GENOMETorontoJohannesburgTel AvivNew ZealandBarcelonaKuala LumpurBeijingShanghaiSantiagoBerlinAmsterdamChicagoVancouverMexico CityNew York CityBostonAustinSilicon ValleyParisLos AngelesSeattleSydneyBengaluruLondonSingaporeStockholm 2018 W O R L D ’ S M O S T C O M P E T I T I V E C I T I E S 27FRANKFURTGERMANYPHOTO: GETTY IMAGESSECTOR LEADER IN:hen it comes to establishing the post-Brexit capital of European fi nance, will the new London be Frankfurt or Paris? Dublin or Frankfurt? Frankfurt or Luxembourg? Amsterdam or Frankfurt? As Germany’s unquestioned center of fi nance — home to the European Central Bank, the German Central Bank, the German stock exchange and scores of international fi nancial institutions — Frankfurt is well positioned in the race to win London’s shrinking global banking business ahead of the UK’s departure from the European Union in March 2019.Germany’s Deutsche Bank, for one, plans to start moving several thousand workers from London to Frankfurt as soon as next year. “Jobs will be created in cities like Dublin, Amsterdam or Paris,” said Deutsche Bank CEO John Cryan in a September 2017 speech. “But none of those locations have the structures to really take over a substantial part of the business in London. e only European city that meets these preconditions is Frankfurt."A report by Frankfurt Main Finance, a public-private lobbying group that’s leading the city’s charge, foresees an infl ux of 10,000 fi nancial services staff from London, with associated job creation of more than 87,000 new positions throughout the Rhein-Main region.If the Frankfurt scenario sounds overly optimistic, a German offi cial told Site Selection in fall 2017 that 15 banks already had committed to relocate staff to the city, including such names as UBS, Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan, Citigroup, Korea’s Woori and Japan’s Sumitomo.By July 2018, when China International Capital Corporation confi rmed it would establish a continental European offi ce in Frankfurt, the legion of relocating bank HQs and expanded capacities had grown to more than two dozen since the Brexit referendum two years previous.“Frankfurt is a cosmopolitan, livable and international city,” said Frankfurt Mayor Peter Feldmann at a recent event celebrating Frankfurt Main Finance's 10th anniversary and growth to more than 50 members.Meanwhile, Hubertus Vaeth, managing director of Frankfurt Main Finance, recently took a public swipe at Paris, widely viewed as Frankfurt’s top rival in the banking sweepstakes, telling e Globe and Mail in Toronto that the French capital “is the city of light, the city of love, and a city of lunch,” adding, “in fi nance, lunch is for losers.”Gary DaughtersSite Selection Magazine50.1109° N8.6821° Eelev. 367 ft.CESUTC+11st5th3rd4th2nd4th5th3rdNext >