The bi-annual ranking of economic, business and financial strengths is produced by fDi Magazine, a publication of the Financial Times. It grades cities on their economic potential, infrastructure, business-friendliness and education expenditure.
Lord Mayor Graham Quirk said the accolade was another ringing endorsement of Brisbane’s growing appeal to foreign businesses and investors.
In the past year, Brisbane Marketing has aggressively pursued campaigns to strengthen economic growth by targeting key decision-makers across the world through the Choose Brisbane campaign.
The strategy is paying dividends, with Brisbane attracting important investment in key industry sectors such as mining and resources, food and agribusiness, tourism infrastructure and civil infrastructure.
Brisbane Marketing’s hotel investment strategy has contributed to the 572 new hotel rooms currently under construction in Brisbane, including the conversion of the former Chifley Hotel into a 300-room NEXT Hotel by Singapore-based SilverNeedle Hospitality.
fDi’s Asia-Pacific Cities of the Future 2013/14 rankings assess a range of data to classify the cities which make business expansion, economic development and inward investment a priority.
The fDi labour environment category methodology assessed Brisbane on education expenditure, literacy rate, number of tertiary education centres and the percentage of the population identifying as students.
A panel of influential experts from the FDI industry assess cities based on their growth potential and opportunities for investment, initiatives taken to promote FDI as well as high growth industry sectors and the growth in large infrastructure and urban planning projects that create a city for the future.
