The April/May 2007 issue of the Financial Times FDI magazine has announced its “City of the Future” awards. FDI is an international magazine published by the Financial Times of London, specifically focusing on the target audience of corporate executives and managers at large companies with operations in more than one country.
The “City of the Future” Awards provide international recognition and are conferred once every two years for cities in North America. Franklin received five awards in the Micro Cities category, cities with less than 100,000 population.
Franklin placed 2nd in Best Human Resources.
The judging criteria for this category:
•Number of university-level educational
institutions in the city
•Number of university-level educational
institutions in the state/province
• Leading university and research
institutions in the city
• Leading university and research
institutions in the state/province
•Number of student graduates in 2005
• Percentage of the city population with
a university-level degree
•Number of “World top-200” universities
•Government-sponsored worker
training programmes
Franklin placed 4th in Best Infrastructure
The judging criteria for this category:
• Strategic transport links
• Mobile phone ownership (percentage
of adult population)
• Internet connection speeds (maximum
available bandwidth)
Franklin placed 10th in Fall in Unemployment 2004-2005 (%).
Franklin placed 5th in Average earnings growth 2004-2005.
Franklin placed 3rd in Percentage of population with a degree.
Congratulations, Franklin!
Here are the rankings for Micro Cities:
Top ten micro cities of the future
1 Zapata Texas United States
2 Ennis Texas United States
3 Sarnia Ontario Canada
4 Yuma Arizona United States
5 Wilmington Delaware United States
6 Silverthorne Colorado United States
7 Surprise Arizona United States
8 Fredericton New Brunswick Canada
9 Plattsburgh New York United States
10 Poughkeepsie New York United States
Micro cities - best economic potential
1 Wilmington Delaware United States
2 Yuma Arizona United States
3 Ennis Texas United States
4 Danville Virginia United States
5 Zapata Texas United States
Micro cities - best development and investment promotion
1 Surprise Arizona United States
2 Zapata Texas United States
3 Sarnia Ontario Canada
4 Yuma Arizona United States
5= Campbell River British Columbia Canada
5= Ennis Texas United States
Micro cities - best human resources
1 Wilmington Delaware United States
2 Franklin Wisconsin United States
3 Plattsburgh New York United States
4 Fredericton New Brunswick Canada
5 Silverthorne Colorado United States
Micro cities - best infrastructure
1 Poughkeepsie New York United States
2 Surprise Arizona United States
3 Zapata Texas United States
4 Franklin Wisconsin United States
5 Wilmington Delaware United States
Micro cities - most business friendly
1 Zapata Texas United States
2 Blue Ash Ohio United States
3 Surprise Arizona United States
4 Ennis Texas United States
5 Wilmington Delaware United States
Micro cities - most cost effective
1 Ennis Texas United States
2 Sarnia Ontario Canada
3 Yuma Arizona United States
4 Plattsburgh New York United States
5 Zapata Texas United States
Micro cities - quality of life
1 Silverthorne Colorado United States
2 Campbell River British Columbia Canada
3 Surprise Arizona United States
4 Wilmington Delaware United States
5 Sarnia Ontario Canada
More details
here.
