Following an international tendering process Marketing Birmingham and Birmingham City Council have commissioned global location strategy specialists IBM-Plant Location International (PLI) to assist with developing the business plan for a world-wide inward investment and business promotion strategy. The strategy will aim to generate 9,000 new jobs over the next five years.

IBM-PLI will help Birmingham to define its selling points as a global business centre and benchmark these against its competitors in the UK and abroad. Currently Birmingham is the top urban area in the West Midlands for attracting foreign direct investment (FDI), with a 21% share from 2003-2008. The West Midlands attracted 5% of the UK's total number of new jobs created through FDI during this period, receiving more research and development investment than any other region outside London.

The commissioned project will focus on traditionally strong sectors for the city alongside those ripe for attracting future investment. Data for 2008 from IBM-PLI's Global Investment Locations Database (GILD) demonstrate that a third of West Midlands jobs created are in the transport equipment industry, with information and communication technologies (ICT) the second with 10% of jobs created. In a move to grow these sectors while exploring new target sectors, the assessment will include: shared services and business process outsourcing; financial services; transport technologies and emerging opportunities such as low-carbon, digital and medical technologies.

Over the next month, experts in Birmingham's target sectors will be asked to contribute their thoughts as part of a programme of workshops designed to inform and influence the strategy. A wider mapping exercise will also be undertaken to examine Birmingham's positioning on a global platform with potential markets identified outside the city's current focal markets of India, China, North America and the Gulf. Other dominant countries creating employment through inward investment in the UK are France and Germany which provide 17% and 11% of new jobs respectively.

The results of the programme will provide vital intelligence for the formation of the inward investment strategy which will cover marketing and sales activities. IBM-PLI will also be working closely with the Marketing Birmingham research team which leads the way in intelligence for the city's business and leisure tourism industry.

IBM-PLI has over 50 years of unmatched experience in advising corporate location decision makers in a variety of sectors and business activities, covering locations around the globe. This experience is used to assist inward investment agencies such as Birmingham with improving their strategies to attract business

Stephen Hughes, Chief Executive of Birmingham City Council, said: "This appointment signals the progress we are making on our strategy to position Birmingham as a global business centre. It is vital we develop a strategy which targets the sectors we are equipped to service as well as those which will be key future growth areas. Between 2003 and 2009, the West Midlands attracted 5% of all foreign direct investment into the United Kingdom, and although we have seen a marked increase since 2007 of investment schemes attracted to the region, we still need to increase our share of foreign direct investment if we are to secure economic growth in the private sector."

Neil Rami, Chief Executive of Marketing Birmingham, said: "This is a critical piece of work that will provide detailed sectoral and geographic intelligence for our marketing strategy. IBM-PLI is a leader in its field with a wealth of global experience advising cities such as Birmingham on how to improve their economic development and investment levels."

Roel Spee, Global Leader of IBM's Plant Location International practice and the lead on the Birmingham project, has experience in working with more than 100 investment promotion agencies in over 30 countries. He added:

"We are delighted to be commissioned by Birmingham to support its response to the challenges of attracting and retaining investment as a catalyst for job creation and economic development. However, the global economic climate has led to every major city reassessing its priorities and we are looking forward to meeting with key figures in the academic and business spheres to find out what attributes they believe Birmingham should highlight to investors in the world marketplace."