Taipei was ranked fifth among 141 cities in the latest Asia-Pacific Cities of the Future report released by the Foreign Direct Investment Intelligence (fDi Intelligence) unit of Financial Times Ltd., sources said Feb. 21.
According to fDi Intelligence, the ROC capital city has high productivity, healthy export growth and a good track record for hosting and exporting foreign direct investment.
“It has attracted 248 greenfield foreign direct investment projects since 2003, and has been the source of 603 projects over the same period,” the report said.
Factors taken into consideration in ranking the cities included economic potential, business friendliness, cost effectiveness, human resources, infrastructure, quality of living and foreign direct investment strategy.
“Taipei has witnessed substantial improvement over the past few years in terms of its infrastructure and human resources, and will continue to build up an environment suitable for foreign investment projects,” said Wei Kuo-yen, head of Taipei City’s Research, Development and Evaluation Commission.
Taipei, which made it into the top 10 list for the first time, outperformed Hong Kong, Beijing, Melbourne, Tokyo and Sydney. Singapore retained its top-ranking position from two years ago, followed closely by Shanghai, Seoul and Shenzhen.
FT has been publishing results of the survey every two years since 2007, using data collected by fDi Intelligence to measure competitiveness across Asia-Pacific countries or regions. (HZW)
Write to Kwangyin Liu at kwangyin.liu@mail.gio.gov.tw