VANCOUVER.
INVESTING IN A PACIFIC GATEWAY.
Vancouver has the No. 1 low-cost position among large Pacific cities in North America – providing exceptional value to your investment. This impressive result comes from Competitive Alternatives: KPMG’s Guide to International Business Costs, 2006 edition. The comprehensive study of location-sensitive costs compares 128 cities in North America, Europe and Asia-Pacific, using the U.S. average as the study benchmark. As a gateway to high-growth Asian markets, Vancouver is the sixth lowest-cost city in which to do business among large international G7 cities surveyed by KPMG. The city provides an ideal, cost-competitive launching point for international businesses targeting dynamic markets in the Pacific Rim, with business costs 3.1 percentage points below the U.S. average.
LEADING THE PACK
Among larger Pacific U.S. cities, Vancouver underscores its overall regional cost competitiveness with the lowest business costs in all 17 sectors reviewed by KPMG, including research-intensive biotechnology and software design. In fact, just next door to some of the world’s largest software design clusters in Seattle and Portland, Vancouver more than holds its own with a 9 and a 4.8 percentage point cost advantage over each city, respectively. In this sector, Vancouver reinforces its regional edge by achieving between approximately 3 and 14 percentage point cost advantages over Pacific U.S. cities.
MAXIMIZING COST ADVANTAGES
The KPMG study confirms Vancouver’s substantial cost advantages over U.S. cities. The costs of operating a business in Vancouver, for example, are nearly 8 percentage points lower than Seattle and 12 percentage points lower than San Jose, the most expensive Pacific location in the study.
That’s just the start. Vancouver has across-the-board regional cost advantages in each sectoral category analyzed by KPMG as proven in the graph below:
The cost advantage is clear. The choice is yours. Investing in Canada simply makes a whole lot of business sense.
VANCOUVER QUICK FACTS:
- Province: British Columbia
- Population: 2,208,300 (2005)
- Traditional Industries: Commercial and business services, forestry and wood products, and transportation services.
- Emerging Industries: Biotechnology, engineering and environmental technologies, and information and communications technology.
