fDi Intelligence, a division of the Financial Times, has selected Brno and Amsterdam as the best cities for expat support out of 124 locations, the website of the Brno Expat Centre reports.
In the inaugural fDi Strategy Awards 2016, Brno’s Expat Centre, which cooperates with Masaryk University, was recognized for the help, information and consultancy services it provides for foreign professionals working and living in the city. Brno was named among the winners of the awards also for its aftercare strategy; it was noted that the Brno City Municipality employs staff on a permanent basis to provide for the aftercare needs of investors to ensure its continued engagement with such companies.
As fDi Intelligence writes, for these awards, the magazine ranked all submissions made between December 2015 and December 2016 in the fDI Strategy category. This amounted to 124 locations.
The Brno Expat Centre is a free public service supported by the City of Brno. It also cooperates with Masaryk University and the companies Honeywell, Red Hat, Lufthansa, Infosys, AT&T, IBM, FEI, Netscout, Kiwi.com and Madfinger Games. According to its website, the Brno Expat Centre provides assistance to foreign professionals of more than 90 nationalities who work and live in the city, as well as providing information and consultancy services, with a special emphasis on residence permits, accommodation, jobs, healthcare and schools.
The Brno Expat Centre project was inspired by expat centres in Vienna, Copenhagen and the Netherlands. It opened in 2010.