Starting out life as a cooking oil manufacturer, India-based Wipro has moved with the times, evolving in recent decades into a technology conglomerate. And, it is not afraid of even more change, as it has shown in recent years, by increasing its international presence and restructuring its sales team.

Investors are looking beyond Romanian capital Bucharest to cities such as Timisoara, Cluj Napoca, Brasov and Constanta, and finding growing economies, skills and business capacity. 

Can the discovery of natural gas reserves in Israel bring in investment and spark the country's gas boom?

Widely considered the Holy Grail of inward investment, the biotech industry is perceived as possessing relative immunity to economic woes. With such potentially high rewards at stake, more and more destinations are trying to gain a foothold in the sector.

The Lower Saxony region in Germany is home to the world's largest exhibition hall and an impressive biotech cluster, meaning that the region is becoming a must-visit destination for numerous big names in the industry.

With locations around the world falling for the charms of SMEs, Michal Kaczmarski looks at the innovative ways in which IPAs are attracting and nurturing smaller business, and assesses benefits they receive as the SMEs blossom into something much more lucrative.

Many investment promotion agencies are just as keen to court start-ups as they are large multinationals, but their approach to attracting these smaller, more fragile companies may benefit from being more hands off than with their larger, established counterparts.

Mipim, an international real estate show hosted every year in Cannes, France, brings together thousands of developers and architects, as well as city and country officials eager to court potential investors. At this year's event, Michal Kaczmarski asked representatives from Brabant, Eindhoven, Frankfurt, Liverpool, Montenegro and the Chechen Republic what sets their locations apart from other destinations.

The discovery of oil off the coast of Marica has transformed the Brazilian city. Keen to ensure this economic good fortune lasts, the city's officials have sought investment in other areas – including tourism and infrastructure – as part of a long-term plan.