Both the cities and cantons of Zurich and Zug have been voted among the leading positions in the European Cities and Regions of the Future 2020/21 rankings compiled by fDi Magazine, which is actually owned by the Financial Times. These rankings assess the most attractive locations for foreign direct investment. Five criteria are used for this: economic potential, human capital and lifestyle, cost effectiveness, connectivity and business friendliness.
In the overall evaluation across all European cities, Zug came in 7th place, with Zurich in 9th position. However, in terms of medium-sized cities, Zurich tops the rankings. Top ratings in the categories of economic potential, human capital and lifestyle in addition to business friendliness were key to this result. Zug came in first place among Europe’s micro cities.
The canton of Zug was ranked in 6th position for the western European regions of the future, with the canton of Zurich one place lower. The latter was ranked in 3rd place for mid-sized regions. Positive evaluations in the criteria of human capital and lifestyle (2nd), business friendliness (3rd) and economic potential (4th) all contributed to this result. The canton of Zug took 3rd place in the rankings for the small regions of Europe.
The Mayor of Zurich, Corine Mauch, was quoted in the fDi report: “I am thrilled by Zurich’s great result. It confirms the importance of the city and region of Zurich with regard to the high concentration of talent, innovation and technical excellence in an environment that offers one of the highest levels of stability and quality of life in Europe.
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