Derbyshire presented with prestigious investment strategy award

Derbyshire has been presented with an award for having one of the best overseas investment strategies in Europe at MIPIM.

Earlier this week, Derbyshire collected its award in Cannes, after the county was included in the prestigious Financial Times’ fDi European Cities and Regions of the Future 2022/23 rankings.

Part of Marketing Derby’s Invest in Derbyshire service involves attracting foreign direct investment (FDI) to the county.

Derbyshire was placed fifth within the top 10 Small Regions for FDI Strategy category, which recognises the regions who have devised the strongest strategy for attracting investment.

Derbyshire was ranked alongside other regions in countries across Europe, including Ireland, Switzerland, Finland, Croatia, Spain, Norway, Austria and Serbia – and was the only UK region to feature in the top 10.

In the same awards, Derby and Derbyshire also enjoyed success in a category which recognised the efforts of Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEPs).

The D2N2 LEP (Derby, Derbyshire, Nottingham, Nottinghamshire) was ranked seventh in the Connectivity category.

At the awards ceremony, Bob Betts, chairman of Marketing Derby, collected the Derbyshire award, while David Williams, deputy chair of D2N2, received its award.

fDi Intelligence is a service from the Financial Times and is the largest Foreign Direct Investment centre of excellence globally.

The rankings are one of the industry’s most prominent benchmarks of FDI competitiveness.

For this year’s rankings, fDi’s research team assessed 356 European cities and 148 European regions.

Speaking from Cannes, John Forkin, managing director of Marketing Derby, who is at MIPIM as part of Team Derby and Derbyshire, said: “The awards we received from the FT, putting Derbyshire in the top ten regions in Europe for investment strategy, has been the perfect conversation opener.”