Derby has a history of innovation dating back to the industrial revolution, a mindset that continues to serve it well into the digital age. Local authorities – keen to make the city somewhere to live as well as work – have spent the past few years improving Derby's leisure offering, all of which is enabling the city to continue to punch above its weight.

The UK's manufacturing decline of recent years seems to have bypassed Derby, which has met the challenge of low-cost competitors in the developing world by focusing upon quality.

The service levels shown to foreign companies locating in Macedonia's free zones have come as a pleasant surprise to even the most seasoned of professionals, giving the country a further competitive advantage on top of its tax incentives and cheap labour.

Three US players in the automobile industry describe how they have fended off the economic downturn by investing in technology and realigning internal practices.

While global vehicle sales were up in 2012, carmakers are proceeding with caution, with closures in some regions shifting industry focus to the US and developing markets.

The Arab Spring protests, and the months of political instability that followed, slowed FDI inflows into north Africa. But rather than pulling out of the region entirely, many investors simply put their projects on hold or moved into other more stable economies such as Morocco and Algeria.