The city of Porto rose to the top of the ranking of European Cities and Regions of the Future, prepared and published by fDi Intelligence, a division of the Financial Times group specialising in international investment.

This is the first time that Porto has taken first place, obtained in the “FDI strategy – Large cities” category, for the results achieved with the municipal strategy for promoting foreign direct investment (FDI), according to a report by ECO.

In the 2023 edition, the expert panel compared the investment promotion strategies of 90 European cities and regions, grouped by population. Among the indicators evaluated are the profile and number of FDI projects attracted in the last 12 months, the fastest-growing sectors, and the results of local policies in areas such as attracting talent, energy resilience, and sustainability.

Speaking to ECO, Ricardo Valente, councillor of Porto City Council, underlines that “this award embodies the quality of the work based on Rui Moreira's pioneering vision of providing the city with a vehicle for attracting and promoting investment”, created eight years ago.

“Porto wins the challenge of trying to build a city where people want to live, which is characterised by the verb to come together – the coming together of people, commerce, economy, entrepreneurship, knowledge, but also tolerance, sharing and culture”, adds the municipal official responsible for the economy, employment and entrepreneurship portfolio.

Climbing seven positions since 2018, when it first appeared in the top 10, the upward trajectory as an investment destination for multinationals puts Porto ahead of other European cities of similar size, such as Birmingham (England), Glasgow (Scotland), Antwerp ( Belgium), Manchester (England), Katowice (Poland), Izmir (Turkey), Gothenburg (Sweden), Adana (Turkey) and Bilbao (Spain).