Derry named second best city in Europe for FDI Strategy in prestigious fDi Intelligence ranking

The study, which benchmarks the most promising investment destinations across Europe, placed Derry second in the small European Cities of the Future ranking in the FDI Strategy category.

Mayor of Derry City and Strabane District Council, Alderman Graham Warke said the high ranking was hugely positive as the Council and its partners continue to work on the delivery of the City Deal and a series of other major investment and regeneration plans to transform the City Region.

He said: "Securing this top ranking in this category is hugely positive for us and reflective of the huge amount of proactive work that has been done over the past number of years to actively promote and develop the opportunities in Life and Health Sciences, in digital technologies and in the application of research in artificial intelligence and machine learning across our City and District.

"Key to this is that all these areas of focus and investment continue through City Deal projects. Our prime focus will be to develop opportunities for the development and promotion of the compelling proposition that is our city and region and the wider North West."

Kevin O'Connor Head of Business with Derry City and Strabane District Council who was involved in the bid for the award, said the panel in their feedback acknowledged the strong cross border collaboration and mobile talent available in the region and the city and district's innovative approach to developing talent in high demand sectors.

He said: "This is a very significant coup for us and comes at a very exciting time in our City Deal journey and as we are recovering from the COVID pandemic and working proactively to promote investment opportunities across our diaspora network, highlighting our increased quality of lower cost of living and increased work life balance to those interested in returning to live and work here.

"Combined with being recognised by USwitch.com as the top location in NI for remote working in the UK Top 5, along with being one of the top locations in the UK for Full Fibre Network connectivity, we are ideally placed for remote working. We are also the only City region located where the UK and EU meet, and is a great place to live, visit, study or to do business in."

The ranking comes less than a year after the City and District was ranked first in the fDi Global Cities of the Future Category in a report carried out by fDi, competing against major cities across the globe.

The European Cities and Regions of the Future 2022/23 benchmarked locations for their attractiveness to FDI.

As many as 356 cities were assessed and grouped by population size into five: major, large, mid-sized, small and micro cities. They were then ranked based on data collected across five subcategories: economic potential, business friendliness, connectivity, human capital and lifestyle, and cost effectiveness.

The Derry City and Strabane District City Region ranked second in the European Cities of the Future FDI Strategy category tipped only by Doncaster and Sheffield City Region and overseeing competition from other European cities such as Plovdiv, Middlesbrough, Braga, Lublin, Cork, Debrecen, Kaunas and Gdynia.