A Sept. 6 Congressional Budget Office letter and memo to Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist detailed its projections for the economic impact of Hurricane Katrina.

The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) has just released early results of its Global Investment Prospects Assessment for 2005-2008. "Industries expected to be at the forefront of FDI [foreign direct investment] growth are computing/ICT, public utilities, transportation and tourism-related services in the services sector; electrical and electronic products, machinery and metals in the manufacturing sector; and mining and petroleum in the primary sector," read a Sept. 5 release. The two tables below present the Top 10 most attractive business locations for 2005-2006 according to FDI experts and executives from transnational corporations (TNCs), respectively. The entire report will be made available online in October.

Economic developers are constantly reminded of the need to brand their territories. But how do countries as a whole fare? The latest Anholt-GMI Nation Brands Index, released in August, says Australia is Brand No. 1 in the world (of 25 under consideration), followed by Canada, Switzerland, the U.K. and Sweden. However, a simple comparison of this ranking to the tables above shows Germany to be the surprise composite pick of FDI experts, corporate practitioners and the world at large. Here are the entire brand-power rankings, based on a survey of 10,000 people’s perceptions of a country's cultural, political and tourist appeal, as well as investment potential:

IAMC member company ProLogis on Sept. 1 issued its annual analysis of the Top 30 U.S. distribution markets. Vacancy rates have declined in 24 of them.

Virginia-based Touchstone Energy Cooperatives has just launched a new searchable site database with a starter set of 3,200 properties in 24 states, at www.SitesAcrossAmerica.com. Electric cooperatives total more than 900 local systems in 47 states. A test of the system turns up 48 sites in Kentucky, each served by one of six different cooperatives, including the famed 1,550-acre Glendale site in Hardin, which nearly claimed Hyundai’s assembly plant before Alabama got the nod in 2002. The company is again considering the site, served by Nolin Rural Electric Cooperative Corp., as a finalist (along with sites in Mississippi, Ohio and Alabama) for a North American plant for Kia.

The 2005 Milken Institute Cost of Doing Business Index finds the South Dakota, North Dakota, Iowa, Montana and Idaho, in that order, in the top five spots for lowest cost of doing business, according to wage cost, taxes, electricity cost and real estate cost for office and industrial space. Most expensive? Hawaii, New York, Massachusetts, California and Connecticut.

In August, 14 months ahead of the fiscal year 2006 for which they’re applicable, the 65,000 H-1B visas allowed by the Department of Homeland Security had been granted. However, a 2004 law allows 20,000 more to be granted to foreign workers with master’s degrees or higher from U.S. colleges and universities — as of late August, only 8,000 of those had been granted. From 2001-2003, the H-1B cap was 195,000. For more on both sides of this issue, visit the Web sites of the Information Technology Association of America and the Federation for American Immigration Reform.