05 September 2021
Sixth edition
There are 148 countries mapped in Global Attractiveness Index (GAI) 2021 with nearly one million data points gathered that make it possible to draw a highly-challenging picture from the standpoint of defining new policies and tools for the recovery. It is for this reason that the past two years the Working Group of The European House – Ambrosetti (unlike the World Bank and World Economic Forum which momentarily suspended publication of their indices) decided to continue with the publication of the GAI research project.
The recovery process has already been outlined by Europe which, in the GAI 2021, maintains an attractiveness level that is high, but fragile, trampled by the Asian region, especially in terms of Foreign Direct Investment. Between 2009 and 2019, the share of FDI attracted by European countries fell from 40% to 24%. A recomposition of the global framework in which North America (from 13% to 20%) and the ASEAN area (from 3% to 12%) benefited in particular. In 2020 this trend grew exponentially with Europe dropping to a share of 7%. As can be imagined, Italy has not benefited from this. In the GAI 2021, Italy is ranked 20th, the result of a loss of 8 places precisely in the KPI regarding FDI, but with an overall score that is improving: 61.32 in 2021 compared with 59.50 in 2020. The sign of a country under pressure, constantly threatened by the greater speed of others, but still very able to resist. Over the last five years, Italy has done well, rising five places compared with the 2017 ranking.