Edinburgh named top global city of the future

Edinburgh is attracting businesses from overseas. Picture Steven Scott Taylor

The award by FDI Strategies was based on the capital’s investment attractiveness, its multi-lingual investment website, recent agreement with the Chinese city of Shenzhen and EU-funded staff exchange programmes for council workers as key reasons behind the success of Scotland’s capital.

Edinburgh has entered into an agreement with the southern Chinese city to encourage investment and broaden links between the cities, and the council has embarked upon several bilateral trade delegations, while incubator space has been set up to accommodate incoming investors.

A counterpart facility has been established in China to attract and facilitate investors from Edinburgh.

Glasgow ranked seventh on the same listing, above London, Toronto and Amsterdam, while Aberdeen ranked 22nd in the overall rankings, beating competitors such as Geneva, Helsinki and Copenhagen.

SNP MSP for Edinburgh Eastern, Ash Denham, said: “This award is a real boost for our capital city, showing the success Edinburgh has had in attracting foreign direct investment – but it also underlines the clear threat to jobs and investment from Brexit.

“EU funding was identified as one of the factors in Edinburgh’s success, which simply underlines the threat that a hard Tory Brexit poses to the city’s future prospects.

“Edinburgh has a rich and varied history and attracts tourists from all over the world for the globally famous festivals and Hogmanay celebrations – and it is great to see our city being held up as a world leading place in which to invest by FDI Strategy.

“Aberdeen and Glasgow also feature prominently in these rankings, proving the global outlook that Scotland’s cities have.

“All of Scotland’s cities benefit massively from being in the EU – as this award makes note of – and it is vital that the Scottish Government’s efforts to protect Scotland’s place in Europe are supported across the political spectrum to ensure that they are able to realise their potential as a global cities of the future.”