S.C. maintains strong reputation for foreign investment

SCEDA Blog
July 15, 2013

South Carolina in general, and its Upstate region in particular, has a long-held reputation for success in attracting foreign investment. A recent ranking shows that an Upstate city is maintaining that reputation.

A division of The Financial Times Ltd. that provides information on foreign direct investment, fDi Intelligence, recently released its bi-annual American Cities of the Future for 2013-14. In that report, Greenville ranks No. 2 overall among micro cities (cities with populations under 100,000).

Data was collected for 422 cities throughout the Americas under five categories:

business friendliness (tax rates, knowledge-based businesses)
cost effectiveness (wages, rents, utilities)
economic potential (population, GDP, patents)
human resources (number of students, quality of schools, quality of life)
infrastructure (airports, ports, data speed)
Cities were also invited to submit details about their economic development strategy regarding foreign direct investment. That information was scored by a panel.

There were 43 cities in Greenville’s size category. It ranked third for its FDI strategy, fifth for economic potential and seventh for human resources.

Fredericton, New Brunswick, was No. 1 among micro cities. Greenville, N.C., ranked 10th. (The report also refers to a “Greenville, Southern California,” but that is actually a reference to the South Carolina city.)

In the 2011-12 rankings, Greenville was the No. 1 micro city, while Columbia was the No. 3 small city (cities with populations of 100,000-350,000).

In other news, South Carolina was the top state in terms of attracting jobs through foreign investment, according to the 2012 annual report from the IBM Institute for Business Value. North Carolina ranked third and Georgia was No. 6.

“International projects continue to be such a huge driver of our projects right now.” Jennifer Noel, a SCEDA member and S.C. Department of Commerce official, told an Upstate Alliance gathering in late 2012.

This recent success comes despite a 16 percent decline worldwide in foreign direct investment in 2012, according to fDi Intelligence.

“Investment promotion agencies will need to understand the changing FDI landscape and offer investors information on advantages unique to their location in order to stand out from the crowd,” the report states.

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