When you decide the time is right to expand your business into global markets, the first question you’ll face is: Where?

If you’re looking to sell a product in an international market, you’ll need to find a market that’s compatible with your product. If you’re looking to source or manufacture goods from another country, you will need to find a place with a good workforce. Both international sales and international production do best in an area with friendly importing and exporting policies.

While finding the right location for your international expansion will depend on your unique business plan, there are some locations around the world that are universally business friendly. These cities can help provide you with a jumping off point for researching potential global hubs for your business.

Based on workforce, trade regulations, monetary factors and market, these five cities are among the best global business environments for international ventures.

1. Hong Kong

Hong Kong has long been a favorite location for international businesses, and with good reason. The governmental infrastructure in Hong Kong encourages business growth. The process for starting a business in Hong Kong is simple, as is the tax structure. The legal system is fair and easy to follow. The Chinese territory has a large base of potential employees and customers, and it links easily to the manufacturing hubs of Shenzhen and Guangzhou.

2. Singapore

Singapore also gets ample attention as a center of international business. It serves as an entryway to the greater Asian market, providing easy access to 3 billion people. Singapore boasts one of the world’s largest ports and a high-capacity international airport, both of which facilitate logistics for companies located within the country.

From a legal perspective, Singapore  is also business friendly. It limits red tape and has generous immigration laws, which makes locating a business in the city relatively quick and easy. Singapore also is known for its vast workforce.

Businesses setting up shop in Singapore, regardless of the type of business they do, are likely to find the manpower they need to support their growing operations.

3. Stockholm

For businesses looking to expand into the European market, Stockholm provides a competitive but prosperous environment. The city boasts the most successful startups per capita in all of Europe.

Most expanding businesses know they will see higher tax rates in Europe, and Stockholm offers no exception, but Swedish laws are known for being incredibly business friendly, with a fast and easy startup process. Businesses opening in Stockholm also will find a trained and educated workforce, as well as easy access to the rest of the European market.

4. Amsterdam

Amsterdam offers businesses the infrastructure they need to enter the European market and grow. The city has the largest internet hub in the world, as well as a vast physical logistics network to provide for easy importing and exporting. In Amsterdam, international businesses also benefit from national laws that encourage foreign investment and the relocation of highly skilled immigrants. You will also find support there in a number of organizations providing resources for growing businesses and startups.

5. Santiago

Businesses looking for a gateway to the South American market can find ample support in Santiago, Chile. Nearly a decade ago, Chile set out to make itself a hub for business in South America, and its business-friendly initiatives have made the country’s economy one of the fastest growing in South America.

Santiago, the largest city in the country, has a vibrant culture of entrepreneurs.

Businesses looking to locate and grow in Santiago are offered incentives and a light business tax structure.

Santiago also has a relatively low cost of doing business.

As you expand your business into the international marketplace, choosing the right region to expand into will be one of the most difficult decisions you make, involving detailed research. But here are some cities you should be looking at first in your research plan, due to their booming economies, access to the international markets and business-friendly policies.

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As a first-timer to Chile, I have to say what I like most about the country is the people. I just love their Latin American personalities, which tend to be professional and respectful, but also warm, open and full of life!

I arrived in Santiago in the afternoon on November 4^th and was greeting with sunny 30 degrees Celsius weather. By the evening the temperature had dropped to about 15 degrees, but this was still warmer than what I’d left behind in Ottawa.

FITTskills developments in Colombia and Chile
Our FITTskills program is already being taught at the Universidad Sergio Arboleda in Bogotá, Colombia. And by this spring, our courses will start being delivered in an evening-class format to professionals in both the private and public business sectors in Santiago, Chile at the Universidad de Chile.

The University is one of the oldest and most prestigious in the country. Nearly 40,000 students attend the five different satellite campuses and several experimental stations situated across the country. The plan is to eventually expand the evening program and incorporate FITTskills into the school’s current full-time international business master’s program.

Down to business in Santiago
On the morning of the 5^th, I met up with Carlos Ronderos for breakfast. Carlos is a partner at Ronderos y Cardenas S.A.S., the Colombian consulting firm we’ve teamed up with to help deliver our FITTskills program in South America.

Carlos is very committed to getting our FITT training into the region. His company has been assisting us by translating our FITT program-material into Spanish as well as by helping us make some invaluable local connections.

After breakfast Carlos and I headed over to the World Trade Center Santiago. We met with the General Manager Matías Pérez and his colleagues Francisco Gutierrez A. and Jéssica Baio Freire. It was great to hear that they’re very interested in FITTskills, and that they support the Universidad de Chile with their delivery plans for the program.

We then visited the University, where I had the pleasure of meeting Olga Lucia Lozano F. and Doris Lopez Giral in person for the first time. I’ve exchanged emails with both of these ladies as they’ve worked to spearhead the implementation of FITTskills at the University. Doris works as a professor, and is very keen to start incorporating more practical and usable skills and knowledge development into the University’s programs. This is where her interest in FITT and the FITTskills program comes in.

We ended the day at the Canadian embassy in Santiago, where we met trade commissioners Peter Furesz, Brenda Wills and Evelyne Coulombe. We updated them on FITT’s activities and plans in Chile, as well what we’re currently doing in Colombia.

There’s a lot of interest from the embassy with respect to doing speaking engagements at the Universidad de Chile once the FITTskills courses start being offered.

It will be our pleasure to keep the embassy in-the-know going forward so that we can foster connections between the embassy and the international trade program at the University.

International trade training at the Universidad de Chile

On Wednesday, the University set up a mini-conference for me. I had the opportunity to speak to individuals from the public and private business sectors in Chile, as well as some of the school’s faculty members, about FITT’s international trade competencies. I discussed what these competencies are, why they’re so important for individuals working in global business, and our latest integrative trade competencies developed through the research we finalized this year as part of our International Trade Workforce Strategy.

There was a lot of interest from the audience, and I was able to answer some great questions about the competencies and our training program.

After the conference, we had time to chat more with University faculty with respect to how they can start delivering the FITTskills program. We had a couple of suggestions whereby R&C in Colombia will send several of their instructors to the University to deliver training, but also to provide train-the-trainer sessions for local instructors. This will enable us to familiarize local instructors with the FITT material as well as our teaching methodologies.

Later in the day, a colleague of Carlos invited us to have a special lunch with several individuals from the Banco de Chile. I met with Christian Schiessler, Director, and Francisco Garces G., who sits on the board. Both were interested to hear about our current activities in the country, and were very supportive of our plans for the future.

Looking ahead to more FITT activity in Latin America
It was certainly a whirlwind two-day trip, but I’m pleased to have had the opportunity to visit Chile. I’m looking forward to building on our relationships with our new FITTskills delivery partner and contacts, and I’m excited to continue expanding the FITTskills program in Latin America!

Have questions about FITTskills in Latin America or have comments about the Colombian or Chilean markets? Leave them for me below!

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