Countries and cities across Europe are competing fiercely for investment from international companies – manufacturing plants, business services centres and technology projects. On 29 October, 11 experts who see this competition from the inside will come to Riga for the Site Selectors Guild European Conference, which brings together international site selection consultants who help global companies decide in which country and city to locate their next investment project. The global conference is being held in Europe for the second time, this year in Riga.
The Site Selectors Guild is the world’s largest association of leading site selection consultants. Its members work close to investment decision-making, comparing potential countries and cities and assessing their competitiveness – which gives them a highly practical view of why one city makes a global company’s shortlist while another drops off it.
International site selection consultants coming to Riga include Andreas Dressler (Location Decisions, Berlin), Tracey Hyatt Bosman (Biggins Lacy Shapiro & Company, Chicago), Dennis Meseroll (Tractus Asia, Bangkok), Patsy Van Hove (IBM-PLI, Brussels), Elias van Herwaarden (Locationperspectives, Brussels), Matthijs Weeink (JLL EMEA, the Netherlands) and others.
On the afternoon of 29 October, media representatives have the opportunity to interview one of the conference experts individually and gain an independent international perspective on what drives global investment flows today and what opportunities they hold for Riga and Latvia. Possible topics:
- where international investment is heading and how companies’ priorities are changing;
- what companies really look for when choosing a country and city for a new project;
- the role of workforce, energy availability and cost, infrastructure, taxes, real estate and fast support from national and local government;
- which sectors could be a real opportunity for Riga and Latvia in the coming years;
- what should be done to put Riga and Latvia on global investors’ radar more often.
“Investment decisions start taking shape long before a company announces them – when consultants draw up a shortlist of countries and cities. The conference allows these experts to get to know Riga first-hand, and gives us the chance to learn directly what global companies are looking for today,”
says Fredis Bikovs, Director of the Riga Investment and Tourism Agency (RITA).
Interview requests: Alise Barvika, Alise.Barvika@riga.lv, +371 29285669. More about the conference here.