Dublin ranked third in the world for foreign direct investment

Dublin has been ranked in third place in a list of the top cities in the world for attracting foreign direct investment (FDI).

The Irish capital displaced Hong Kong to move up one place in fDi magazine's "global cities of the future" rankings, coming in behind Singapore and London.

The bi-annual index, which is published by the Financial Times, looks at the success of individual cities and their government in attracting overseas investment.

The Irish capital placed third in both the economic potential and business friendliness subcategories.

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Foreign direct investment into the Republic rose by 4 per cent in 2015, a year in which the number of FDI projects into Europe fell by nearly 9 per cent.

The study authors said the city continues to go from “strength to strength as a hub for software and IT FDI”, which it noted accounted for 45.2 per cent of all of Dublin’s FDI between 2011 and 2015.

Shanghai, New York, Hong Kong, Amsterdam, Dubai, Paris and San Francisco round out the top ten cities overall for foreign direct investment.

According to the report, Singapore is far and above the best city for FDI globally with 1,907 inward projects reported between 2011 and 2015, the highest number of investments of all locations reviewed.

Belfast was ranked in 18th place out in the strategy subcategory, ahead of Auckland, Montreal, Cape Town and Cologne.

According to the report, global foreign direct investment has been steadily declining after reaching a high in 2011 when 15,000 projects were recorded. Last year, 12,882 FDI-linked ventures were reported worldwide.

China was home to six of the top ten emerging market cities globally. Shanghai came in first place, followed by Beijing, Bucharest, Tianjin, Guangzhou, Bangalore, Shenzhen, Nanjing and Bangkok.