The Barcelona Never Stops campaign launched in the capital of Catalonia in response to the Covid-19 pandemic convinced the jury that draws up the ranking of Europe’s best cities for investment. Four investment promotion and foreign direct investment (FDI) professionals in collaboration with the editor of fDi Intelligence, Jacopo Dettoni, rated it the best among 75 candidates analysed.

Among the other initiatives that swayed their decision were the Barcelona International Welcome Desk, which facilitates the arrival and establishment of investors, researchers and students, among others, and the Barcelona Green Deal circular economy project, which sets out to attract sustainable food and transport companies, speed up the energy transition and drive the blue economy, which works to improve the sustainability of ocean resources.

Commitment to smart manufacturing
Catalonia ranks top of European regions with the best strategies for attracting investment, with the Community of Madrid in fourth position. The Acció Catalonia Trade & Investment agency has prospered thanks to its smart manufacturing projects, which have positioned it as a leader in industry 4.0 technology, according to the report. Catalonia attracted more than 26 billion euros in investments in the 2016-2020 period, which was 26.2% more than the previous five-year period.

Madrid was also ranked eighth in the general ranking of the ten largest European cities of the future, thanks to its excellent performance in a number of areas analysed, such as human capital and lifestyle (in sixth position), ease of doing business (tenth) and connectivity (fourth). Among the biggest regions, the Community of Madrid climbed four points with respect to the previous edition to be the sixth best in the general ranking.

Research and development
One of the sectors where Madrid excels - according to the report produced by fDi Intelligence - is research and development, having attracted almost 645 million dollars last year, according to data processed by fDi Markets. The transport sector also occupies a prominent position, with the largest number of companies per 100,000 inhabitants from the 44 main regions that make up the ranking, according to data provider Dun & Bradstreet.

Andalusia also appears in the large region ranking, heading the connectivity category in Europe. An additional two medium-sized Spanish regions feature in the specific connectivity ranking: Canary Islands (fourth) and the Basque Country (ninth), while the Balearic Islands came second among small regions.

The fDi Intelligence ranking by the Financial Times group is an annual publication that analyses Europe’s most attractive investment destinations based on categories such as economic potential, human capital and lifestyle, profitability, connectivity and ease of doing business. It harnesses tools such as fDi Markets and fDi Benchmark along with other non-specific ones.

^{Photo: fDi Intelligence}