Birmingham has an exciting story to tell – from our creation of innovative tools to attract investors, to the flagship infrastructure schemes transforming the city’s landscape and bringing it closer to the rest of the world.

Business Birmingham, the city’s inward investment programme operated by Marketing Birmingham, launched in April 2011 with no investor pipeline. The city is now working with some 300 potential foreign investors and already attracting unprecedented levels of foreign direct investment (FDI).

 The city secured a 52 per cent rise in FDI projects in 2012/13, against a national increase of 11 per cent. This follows a 41 per cent rise in 2011/12. Birmingham also attracted more investments than ever before in 2012/13.

This safeguarded and created more than 4,000 local jobs, worth an estimated £174 million to the local economy per year.

We expect to see further growth when this year’s figures are released in the coming months.

In the past five years, Birmingham has created more jobs from FDI than any UK regional city. Some of the most exciting companies in the world are settling and expanding in our city:

* Deutsche Bank (Germany)

* Construction firm Skanska (Sweden)

* NVC Lighting – China’s largest lighting manufacturer

* Automotive manufacturer Jaguar Land Rover (India)

* Online retailers Tinyme (Australia) and ASOS (UK)

* Games developer Ayogo (Canada)

* Architect Gensler (USA)

Birmingham beat off competition from international rivals to win Foreign Direct Investment Destination of the Future at the international FDI Association Awards in Shanghai.

The city’s ambitious economic development, the scale of investment in its infrastructure, comprehensive investor support and talent saw it picked out as the global ‘one to watch’.

Assisting investors

Birmingham’s FDI success is driven by a highly targeted strategy focusing on key markets and sectors which will deliver the greatest investment and employment for the city.

Business Birmingham targets seven industries: advanced manufacturing, ITEC, digital media, food and drink, life sciences, automotive, and business, professional and financial services. They represented 80 per cent of investments in Birmingham in 2012/13.

The city offers investors a range of invaluable benefits, from the bespoke facilities in its six economic zones, to the incentive packages provided by local private and public sector organisations. Birmingham is tapping into its wide-ranging resources to provide every opportunity for businesses looking to locate here.

Economic zones

Birmingham’s six economic zones combine the city’s economic development, planning and inward investment strategies to create unrivalled flexibility and support for investors:

* Longbridge ITEC Park, a life sciences campus, advanced manufacturing hub, food hub, City Centre Enterprise Zone and Tyseley Environmental District

* Launched in September 2012

* Will attract £1.5 billion and 50,000 new jobs – unprecedented scale in the UK

* Offer tailored space, facilities and services for companies in key target sectors

* The Life Sciences Campus includes new Institute of Translational Medicine (ITM), offering world-class accommodation for life sciences companies, clinicians and academics

* By targeting entry level jobs as well as highly skilled roles, the zones are focused on the wider economic benefits of growing employment levels – providing the local workforce with career entry and progression opportunities

The economic zones have been developed by Business Birmingham with Birmingham City Council to align with the city’s sectors of strength. They offer bespoke support for the private sector to accelerate development and ease their start up or move within the city including simplified planning, training and recruitment programmes, access to finance and gap funding.

Mobile Investment Fund (MIF)

The MIF is a pilot scheme to provide financial incentives for foreign investors coming to the city and creating jobs. The MIF enables Birmingham to compete with other UK and European locations which can already provide grants to investors.

Directed by local organisations, it can be tailored to fit around the specific requirements of companies considering the city, making it one of the UK’s most flexible investor funding schemes.

Business Catalyst

The Business Catalyst programme is Business Birmingham’s soft landing package, offering discounted or free services and accommodation through its partners.

It is one of the most comprehensive packages of investor support in the UK, with companies supported from initial enquiry to completion of move and establishing the business, such as:

* People: local labour pool analysis, recruitment campaigns

* Property: six weeks or six months of free space, discounted personal accommodation and hot-desking

* Process: business services including legal advice, project management and free banking

* Profile: PR, sales and marketing workshops, networking events and social media collaboration

Support is also available through the Top 100 Employers Programme and UKTI Strategic Relationship Management for Advanced Engineering national programme which is run out of Birmingham.

Economic development

The city region now has momentum. During a difficult climate, Birmingham is taking control of its future and ensuring its potential is realised.

Birmingham is able to retain all the money raised from an uplift in business rates generated in its city centre Enterprise Zone – the largest city centre zone in the UK – to spend on its own key priorities.

By borrowing against this income, it has already raised £125 million towards a massive programme of investment that will transform its infrastructure, develop new commercial and office space, boost skills and training, and enhance its digital connectivity.

Infrastructure

There is more investment in Birmingham’s transport networks now than for a generation.

Its expanding transport connections have turned the city into an international gateway into the UK and Europe.

These cutting-edge schemes reflect a city which is constantly changing and innovating to meet the demands of global investors.

Birmingham Airport is making a £65 million commitment to extend its runway which will allow aircraft to fly directly to the west coast of the United States, China and South Africa. When the extended runway is complete in 2014, Birmingham Airport will be able to handle more than 36 million passengers.

Birmingham New Street rail station is undergoing a £600 million transformation to support more than 52 million passengers a year.

It will become a world-class gateway for the city by 2015. A new concourse will be three-and-a-half times bigger than at present.

A redeveloped shopping centre, named Grand Central, will include a 250,000 sq ft John Lewis department store, one of its largest stores outside London.

Birmingham is at the heart of the new HS2 network, the UK’s new high-speed rail line.

HS2 brings many of the UK’s greatest cities, including Birmingham, Manchester, Leeds, London and Nottingham, even closer together.

HS2 will create 51,000 jobs in the wider Birmingham region and generate an annual £4 billion boost to the local economy.

The £127 million Midlands Metro is expected to boost the West Midlands economy by £50 million a year and create up to 1,300 jobs. It will provide a link between Birmingham’s two major rail stations – Snow Hill and New Street – and deliver more than 3.5 million passengers a year into the heart of shopping district.

Quality of life

Birmingham is known as the most attractive UK regional city for quality of life (Mercer 2013).

We are investing in our future. The new £188 million Library of Birmingham, Europe’s largest public library, provides a centre for creativity, learning and culture for the city’s youth.

Birmingham is a city of multi-cultural festivals: Chinese, Sikh, Hindu and Islamic festivals as well as jazz, dance and the largest St. Patrick’s Day parade in the UK.

It is home to 25 independent festivals each year and has staged more European and World Championships than any other UK city.

If you just need peace and quiet, Birmingham is one of the greenest cities in the UK with more than 8,000 acres of parks and open space.

Boasting more Michelin-starred restaurants than any other UK regional city, Birmingham has been feted by the likes of The New York Times for its culinary scene.

It also has one of the largest urban parks in Europe and galleries ranging from one of the finest collections of ancient coins to the world’s largest collection of album covers.