The City of Greensboro, the surrounding area and the state of North Carolina have been doing extremely well in recent years when it comes to catching the eyes of businesses looking to locate somewhere, and the area now has yet another feather in its cap.

A highly respected London-based daily business newspaper – the Financial Times – has ranked Greensboro as the ninth best US city for foreign business to operate.

The impressive Top Ten ranking came in the 2023 Financial Times-Nikkei rankings.  That ranking each year helps inform businesses around the world where to locate or relocate.

Greensboro’s 9th place finish is up 11 places from last year’s ranking of 20th.

Nikkei, a Japanese holding company, owns the world-famous publication that each year ranks cities based on a wide variety of metrics in order to determine which ones are the most amenable to foreign businesses.

Those metrics include things like quality of life, “openness,” logistical concerns, ease of travel to and from the city, and many other considerations.

Greensboro scored a 100/100 in “Aftercare” – a category that refers to the level of state and local support to foreign companies following their investment.

Greensboro also scored 86/100 in both Investment Trends and Business Environment – as well as a 79/100 in Quality of Life.

The Business Environment category looks at the cost and ease of doing business in each city.

The North Carolina cities on the list are Charlotte (8), Raleigh (14) and Winston-Salem (46).

Four of the overall top five cities were in Texas. Houston came in first, followed by Pittsburgh, Plano, Irving and Dallas.

It’s interesting that Charlotte and Greensboro are neck and neck in this ranking.  Greensboro leaders have for decades looked to Charlotte as a model of how to attract new business.