Top 5 places to do business in 2023 - is your program moving people to these locations?

The World Citizenship Report for 2023 is out. Data is based on research by London-headquartered leading government advisory and marketing firm CS Global Partners, and the report ranks countries according to five key motivators: 

1. The Best Citizenship for Business
2. The Best Citizenship for Financial Freedom
3. The Best Citizenship for Travel
4. The Best Citizenship for Quality of Life
5. The Best Citizenship for Safety and Security

When it comes to the above motivators, which are most important to you? Survey results share that Quality of Life was the most important of the five. Safety and Security were next.

The report weighted each of the categories in the following manner:

Over the past few decades, there has been a shift in economic growth from the West to emerging markets that has led to new business hubs worldwide. Regions such as Asia, the Middle East, and South America have seen rapid economic growth, coupled with improved infrastructure and, in some cases, lighter regulation.  

Here are the top 5 places to do business in 2023:

1. Singapore (84.8)
2. United States (83.7)
3. Hong Kong (83.1)
4. Netherlands (82.4)
5. Switzerland and Japan (82.3)

As you can see it is a very tight race for those top spots. All are ranked highly as predictable, stable, safe and innovative environments where intellectual property and regulatory environments are conducive to business. 

When looking at the other 4 motivators, here are the countries that led their respective categories:

Highest Quality of Life: Monaco

Safest and most Secure: Iceland

Best for free travel: Japan

Best for Financial Freedom: Denmark

Then when you roll all of these up together, here are the Overall Top 10 in the World Citizenship Index:

1. Denmark
2. Switzerland
3. Finland
4. Sweden
5. New Zealand
6. Norway
7. Netherlands
8. Iceland/Luxembourg/Singapore
9. Germany
10. Liechtenstein

The full list of 152 countries can be found on page 60-61 of the report.

One area of the report that mobility teams might want to review starts on page 20, where the authors look at "Dissolving the location barrier: Technology's impact on our work and lifestyle". It speaks to an upswing into obtaining second citizenships related to changing work structures and a post pandemic focus on rebalancing work and life. 

Some interesting updated stats on Digital Nomads:

• 24 million Americans plan to become digital nomads in the next two-three years.
• 47% of digital nomads are Millennials (in their 30's)
• 61% of digital nomads are men
• 29% of digital nomads visit three countries per year, 17% visit 5 countries
• 85% are highly satisfied with their work

“As mentioned, we live in an age of increased mobility and digital nomadism, there are options for the successful entrepreneur and their families. There are many countries ready and willing to welcome them with open arms.” (Andrew Skipper). 

While this is true and there are an increasing number of digital nomads expected in the near future, there are reports coming out that it may not be what it is cracked up to be. In fact, according to the BBC, some people who have tried combining working with travel have found the lifestyle isn't quite what they thought. Check out their piece on The workers quitting digital nomadism.