'City of the future': Mobile in top
10
Huntsville also ranks high on magazine's list
Tuesday, April 24, 2007
By KAIJA WILKINSON
Business Reporter
Mobile has been named one of the top 10 North American Small
Cities of the Future by fDi (foreign direct investment) magazine,
a London-based subsidiary of the Financial Times, the Mobile
Area Chamber of Commerce has announced.
A panel of nine judges reviewed nominations submitted by 108
cities on more than 60 criteria to determine the winners, according
to fDi. Short-listed cities scored well in areas such as economic
potential, cost effectiveness, human resources, quality of life,
infrastructure, business friendliness, development and investment
promotion.
The complete list, which includes awards for major cities, large
cities, small and micro cities appears in fDi's April/May issue.
A variety of factors went into each area. Economic potential, for
example, included studies of employment levels, earnings growth
over time, foreign direct investment, and age of the working population,
among other things. Business friendliness included level of corporate
taxation, number of out-of-state companies in the city and state,
and number of jobs created by out-of-state investment in the past
year.
Bill Sisson, the chamber's vice president of economic development,
said the chamber was encouraged to apply by an fDi reporter who
visited Mobile several months ago.
Sisson said it wasn't one particular project or event that stood
out. "The judges looked at this very closely and looked
at a number of things, and looked at it over a period of time," Sisson
said.
Huntsville was honored as the No. 2 Small City of the Future,
while Windsor, Ontario, snagged the top honor. Mobile was No.
8.
The top-ranked major city for 2007 was Chicago. Juarez, Mexico,
won the top honors among large cities. The top micro city was
Zapata, Texas.
Mobile also received honors in two subcategories, Most Business
Friendly city, where it was first, and Best Economic Potential,
where it was runner up.
The fDi Cities of the Future competition has been running for
five years, and this is the first year it has brought together
cities in the U.S., Canada and Mexico.
National, third-party recognition makes Mobile even more marketable,
Sisson said, adding that he's particularly pleased about the business
friendly city ranking.
"I think that speaks volumes about what it's like to do
business here, and hopefully puts us on a lot of radar screens," Sisson
said.
The top 10 small cities of the future:
1. Windsor, Ontario, Canada
2. Huntsville
3. Albany, N.Y.
4. London, Ontario, Canada
5. Waterloo, Ontario, Canada
6. Colima, Colima, Mexico
7. Bloomington-Normal, Ill.
8. Mobile
9. Chatham-Kent, Ontario
10. Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada
Source: fDi magazine |
