The US is the most attractive destination for information communication technology (ICT), according to benchmarking analysis carried out by fDi. The country tops the tables when both quality and cost are taken into account, and when quality is the only indicator.

UK comes second when quality is the only indicator, but by a long margin of more than 300 points. Japan and China are just below the UK.

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When considering quality and cost (with cost weighted at 20% and quality at 80%), the UK and Japan fall to fourth and fifth positions, respectively, while India and China move up to second and third places.

Asian cities impress

When the same indicators are applied to the cities, the upper hand belongs to the Asia-Pacific region. India has five cities in the top 20 and China has three. Tokyo is the leader when cost and quality are taken into account, and also when measured by quality alone.

New York and London are ranked in the upper echelons of both city rankings, but far below Tokyo in terms of points accrued. The Japanese capital is doing particularly well in terms of fundamental ICT attractiveness, despite supply problems caused by the massive earthquake and tsunami that hit the north-east of the country earlier this year.

Surprisingly, although the US turned out to be the top destination country for ICT projects, New York is the only US city to make it into the top 20 most attractive cities.

In terms of project numbers, fDi Markets research recorded that between January 2003 and June 2011, more than 41% of all enterprises were located in the US (6605 out of 15,837 projects). The UK comes second with 1290 projects. In general, European countries, especially France and Germany, fare better than those in Asia, despite a less favourable cost and quality ratio.

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