Mobile Bay Blog

Mobile has been named one of the top 10 North American Small Cities of the Future by fDi (foreign direct investment) magazine, a London-based subsidiary of the Financial Times, the Mobile Area Chamber of Commerce has announced.

A panel of nine judges reviewed nominations submitted by 108 cities on more than 60 criteria to determine the winners, according to fDi. Short-listed cities scored well in areas such as economic potential, cost effectiveness, human resources, quality of life, infrastructure, business friendliness, development and investment promotion.

The complete list, which includes awards for major cities, large cities, small and micro cities appears in fDi's April/May issue.

A variety of factors went into each area. Economic potential, for example, included studies of employment levels, earnings growth over time, foreign direct investment, and age of the working population, among other things. Business friendliness included level of corporate taxation, number of out-of-state companies in the city and state, and number of jobs created by out-of-state investment in the past year.

Bill Sisson, the chamber's vice president of economic development, said the chamber was encouraged to apply by an fDi reporter who visited Mobile several months ago.

Sisson said it wasn't one particular project or event that stood out. "The judges looked at this very closely and looked at a number of things, and looked at it over a period of time," Sisson said.

Huntsville was honored as the No. 2 Small City of the Future, while Windsor, Ontario, snagged the top honor. Mobile was No. 8.

The top-ranked major city for 2007 was Chicago. Juarez, Mexico, won the top honors among large cities. The top micro city was Zapata, Texas.

Mobile also received honors in two subcategories, Most Business Friendly city, where it was first, and Best Economic Potential, where it was runner up.

The fDi Cities of the Future competition has been running for five years, and this is the first year it has brought together cities in the U.S., Canada and Mexico.

National, third-party recognition makes Mobile even more marketable, Sisson said, adding that he's particularly pleased about the business friendly city ranking.

"I think that speaks volumes about what it's like to do business here, and hopefully puts us on a lot of radar screens," Sisson said.

The top 10 small cities of the future:

1. Windsor, Ontario, Canada

2. Huntsville

3. Albany, N.Y.

4. London, Ontario, Canada

5. Waterloo, Ontario, Canada

6. Colima, Colima, Mexico

7. Bloomington-Normal, Ill.

8. Mobile

9. Chatham-Kent, Ontario

10. Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada

Source: fDi magazine