Chengdu performed well in the ranking for the Asia-Pacific Cities of the Future 2011-12 published by FDI Intelligence magazine. The magazine is a bi-monthly news and foreign direct investment (FDI) publication owned by The Financial Times and based in London.

Chengdu, the only Chinese inland city on the list, has attracted investment from Intel, Accenture, IBM, Ubisoft, MSK, Philips and numerous other Top 500 enterprises in recent years.

The shortlist was created through independent data collection by professional institutes across 141 Asia-Pacific cities. The information of cities was assessed for seven categories: economic potential, human resources, costs effectiveness, quality of life, infrastructure, business friendliness and FDI promotion strategy.

The top 10 Asia-Pacific Cities of the Future 2011-12 for foreign direct investments include Singapore, Melbourne (Australia), Hong Kong (China), Brisbane (Australia), Sydney (Australia), Pusan (South Korean), Auckland (New Zealand), Perth (Australia), Guangzhou (China) and Chengdu (China).

The four Asian cities—Hong Kong, Pusan, Guangzhou and Chengdu claimed the third, sixth, ninth, and tenth place respectively.