Montreal tops international list of competitive cities : KMPG

[WestAust]

Well, it is difficult to provide a fully encompassing answer, but I shall note the following:

 

1) Cost competitiveness is one thing, but not everything: New York City, London and other global cities are more expensive, yet they remain the preferred locations for most top business activities.

 

2) It remains possible and profitable as well to conduct SOME international business from a Montreal location, but just not all kinds.

 

3) Paris has retained its status as a top tier city, despite it not being a predominantly English speaking community.

 

4) Notwithstanding point 3) above, the (English language) convenience of Dublin, Ireland, has attracted several American corporations seeking a foothold in the European Union + Eurozone.

 

5) In several countries not having English as a national language, I have found that for certain positions (eg. marketing, global procurement) within major corporations which have the whole world as their market, full knowledge of English IS a primary job requirement, while a knowledge of the local language is merely a plus.

 

6) Montreal acts as a sort of interface between predominantly unilingual French Rest-of-Quebec and the Rest of the World (including the Rest of Canada). A fair balance must be maintained between its «Frenchness» and its «Englishness» . When I wrote «Continuing good news, but caution needed» in my previous post, I certainly had this issue in mind.

 

Lots of valid points, but many precisions must be added.

 

1) London, NYC... are all major sources of capital, having access to capital is calculated in the cost of doing business, and ease of access to funds reduces the cost of doing business in a city.

 

2) True

 

3) Paris is the center of french language business (africa, europe), plus has access to a market of over 60m people, it's own market is large enough to make to corporations thrive.

 

4) Dublin main advantage has been tax related, making Ireland one of the cheapest place in the EU to be based especially when it comes to intellectual property.

 

5) True

 

6) True

[jesseps]

I am living in Dublin. The cost of living is pretty bad, the pay isn't the greatest, compared to Montreal. It is my fault for not studying in computer science.

 

Thing is PayPal, IBM and other tech companies that have their EU HQ in Dublin or Ireland, all because of the tax system in place (that is all). Also the companies that are multinational and make billions a year, are constantly looking for people that speak 2-3 languages. They hardly hire anyone who speaks only English. The reason being, it is the EU HQ and the EU has so many different languages.

 

So, it is good if people know more than 1-2 languages, it will go a long way. Here in Dublin or back in Canada. Learning another language will not kill you!

 

How did Montreal and Canada rank back when the Dollar was at parity to the USD?

Modifié 31 mars 2016 par jesseps