Ireland has retained its position as the best country in the world for the quality of its foreign direct investment (FDI) in IBM’s annual Global Locations Trend report. It has also moved up four places in the World Bank’s ‘Doing Business’ rankings.
The country is ranked in first place in IBM’s report due to its success in attracting high quality research and development activities in life sciences and IT, coupled with high-value investment in financial services.
Ireland was also in the top four of global destination countries by estimated jobs - per million inhabitants, while Dublin made the top 10 of destination cities for FDI in the world, based on projects won.
Separately, the World Bank’s ‘Doing Business 2015’ report places Ireland in 13th place out of 189 countries for ease of doing business. This is four places higher than last year.
“Ireland has traditionally been a strong performer in FDI, but what comes through clearly from IBM’s latest and influential report, is that the quality of projects won is very high. It is pleasing to see companies not just placing operational roles in Ireland, but also high value research and development (R&D) projects in Ireland. This is also happening across a number of sectors, which gives Ireland a welcome balance to its portfolio of overseas investments. The latest high ranking follows on from Forbes late last year describing Ireland as the best location in the world to do business. Ireland’s improving score for ease of doing business will be positively received by potential international investors,” said IDA Ireland chief executive Martin Shanahan.