FDI Intelligence, the Financial Times foreign investment specialist division, published the "European Cities & Regions of the Future 2025" report on the attractiveness of cities and regions in Europe. Emilia-Romagna ranks 5th among the large European regions for its FDI (Foreign Direct Investment) strategy.
Pillars of the Emilia-Romagna FDI Strategy
Integration between investment promotion and talent development/attraction represents a key pillar of the regional strategy, with the implementation of the Regional Law for the Promotion of Investments (L.r.14/2014) and of the recent Regional Law to Attract and Retain Talents (L.r.2/2023).
The Emilia-Romagna investment promotion strategy focuses on sustainability, innovation, qualified employment, and integration with the regional value chains. Becoming part of regional innovation ecosystem is a key factor of attractiveness/retention with many actors promoting PPPs, including the Clust-ER associations and the Data Valley. The contact points Invest in Emilia-Romagna and it-ER International Talents in Emilia-Romagna - both managed by the development agency ART-ER on behalf of the regional government – are part of a wide network of collaboration at local, national and international level to position the region and to provide more effective services and incentives to companies for each step of their investments. Our Smart Specialization Strategy (S3) aims at supporting R&I connecting the production and the knowledge systems and identifying the main priorities that are consistent with the Pact for Climate and Labour, the Digital Agenda 2020-25, and with the Strategic Technologies for Europe Platform (Step).
Methodology of the report
To create a shortlist for the report, the division of the Financial Times collected data for 521 locations (379 cities, 142 regions), under five categories: Economic Potential, Human Capital and Lifestyle, Cost Effectiveness, Connectivity and Business Friendliness. In addition, surveys were collected under the category FDI Strategy, for which there were 89 submissions. Large regions are those with a population of more than 4 million people.
Full report available at: https://www.fdiintelligence.com/content/rankings-and-awards/european-cities-and-regions-of-the-future-2025-84523
