- Foreign Direct Investment and Urban Change   470 kb by    Rocco, Roberto | r.rocco@bk.tudelft.nl    Short Outline Foreign Direct Investment in Advanced Producer Services is changing the face of cities. The increasing sophistication and complexity of business operations has produced a need for new spaces where APS can operate in global cities. Abstract This work investigates the spatial outcomes of increasing inflows of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) to Advanced Producer Services (APS) and other ‘command activities’. APS are the most dynamic and sophisticated sector of economy and are a powerful factor for urban change in an increasingly globalised economy. APS are one of the 'main connectors' between global cities, because they are among the most globally connected activities and they generate an enormous amount of exchanges of all kinds (people, money, information), bringing about social and cultural change. The increasing sophistication and complexity of business operations and the associated need for growth and sophistication of APS has produced a need for new spaces where they can operate in global cities. Cities have sought to attract these activities by making use of their comparative advantages, stirring rapid changes in urban form and function. This has happened mainly through strategic planning and the carrying out of Large Urban Projects. However, the urban geography of APS and other command function obeys a very complex logic. Empirical research on the location of global firms in two global regions (Sao Paulo and Randstad-Holland) may give urban planners and decision makers input for action. This research main question is: How does the location of Advanced Producer Services affect Urban Form and Function? What are comparative advantages of places in order to attract them? Our main hypothesis is that APS look for very specific spatial requirements and thus tend to agglomerate and cluster in “new” specialised centralities, whereas “old” centralities keep only some of the most traditional producer services and have to look for new vocations in order to remain vital. Keywords Advanced Producer Services, Global City, Geography of Services, Urban Planning Case Study presented on the ISOCARP Congress 2005: Making Spaces for the Creative Economy   Click to open the full paper as pdf document   Click to send an email to the author(s) of this paper