5 comments:

1. Commented by Michael P. Barrett - October 7, 2009 at 9:30 am

2. lisbon , it is sunny , which makes people happy , good climate brings increase in production, good food, fantastic satisfaction, peacefull no bomb attemps, low price in real estate fantastic for expansion , very creative in business, tecnology advanced , excelente work force , many languages spoken , magnificant life, low cost in transports, low cost fares to europe , security – that is why most international companies have their data base system here located , great connection to europe, africa and brasil .great business increase in tourism .
   ” lisbon the city of love “.
   good for real estate investment with good return.

   Commented by vitor rita - October 7, 2009 at 10:24 am

3. obviously the air transport connections are the crucial factor to be ranked; otherwise the 5th rank for brussels could not be explained given the high crime rate, bad infrastructure, exorbitant prices for low quality food and poor recreational facilities in this dirty and desolate city!

   Commented by tom delius - October 8, 2009 at 1:07 pm

4. Have to agree with Michael. Lisbon what a great place to live and work and only 20 mins from the beach

   Commented by Justin Prosser - October 9, 2009 at 2:50 pm

5. Of course Lisbon is a very nice city to visit and maybe also to live in. But does Lisbon attract international headquarters? Not that many, would be my guess!

   In the end the most important factors remain the obvious and maybe pretty boring ones: international connectivity (by air, rail, road), real estate and land prices, and also how may other headquarters are already in the city or region. There’s a pretty strong path dependency in which centres are dominating Europe: the best scoring centres of today most often are already on top for decades, sometimes even centuries. Next to that, I think the presence of a qualified labour pool is very important, and related to that, the presence of higher education with a good international reputation. Of course it is a big plus of a city can combine that with a good quality of life, a great residential environment and nice places to meet, dine and go out. But they are far less important than the ‘hard’ / ‘classic’ factors I mentioned earlier.

   In that sense I also think that Barcelona, as attractive as that city might seem, is grossly overestimated in the European Cities Monitor. Great quality of life, very nice to visit… but does it attract so many international headquarters? I don’t think so, and even less so now that Spain is facing the deepest crisis of all European countries!

   Commented by Marco Bontje - October 13, 2009 at 2:38 pm