ECONOMY
BAKU IS MOST FAVORABLE CITY FOR INTERNATIONAL INVESTMENT
The authoritative panel where has entered also the editor of the “FDI Magazine” Courtney Fingar, has defined the best cities and regions by 28 separate criteria in 7 nominations (promotion to direct foreign investments, economic potential, cost effectiveness, human resources, information technologies and communications, transport and quality of life). The best cities and regions have received 3 pts for the first place, 2 pts - for the second place and 1 pt- for the third place.
Baku has won first place from the point of view of potential opportunities for development of business in geographical category “The East Europe - the West of the CIS”. At estimation of judges has considered the fact high recently inflow of direct investments to Baku. In this nomination, the second place was given to the Ukrainian city Rivne as runner up.
With an estimated GDP of more than 12.6bn for 2005 and an economy growing at more than 10% a year, Baku is emerging as an important economic powerhouse for the Western Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) countries. The Azerbaijan government estimates that more than €4bn in FDI flowed into the city in 2005.
IT and communications are still catching up with EU standards, but more than one in four people have access to the internet, and data connection speeds of up to 500 megabits a second are available. Modern housing is available close to shopping areas where familiar outlets such as Polo, Benetton and McDonald’s have opened.
The competition for European Cities and Regions of the Future is held in three stages. In part one, regions and cities were invited to put forward bids to be selected as the best location in their country or region (UK, Benelux, Greece, etc). The winners of the first round will have the chance to compete in five broader geographical categories: Northern Europe, Eastern Europe, Western Europe, Central Europe and Southern Europe. Finally, the best locations in Europe will compete for fDi magazine’s top awards: European City and European Region of the Future 2006/07. Awards will also be given for the best locations in each individual category (Most Cost-effective, Best Promotion Strategy, Best Economic Potential, etc). The winners of rounds two and three, and the best in category winners, will be announced in fDi’s April/May issue.