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PARTNER RESEARCH RESULTS FORUM CITY RANKING
GUCR
2007-2008

2005-2006

CUCR
No1
No2
No3
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No7

 

The abstract of “2007~2008 Global Urban Competitiveness Report”

 

 

Global Urban Competitiveness Report (2007~2008) was published on the Fifth International Forum on Urban Competitiveness on July 27th, 2008. The report was prepared by a team led by Dr. Ni Pengfei from the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and Prof. Peter Karl Kresl from Bucknell University of the United States, and finished through cooperation of scholars coming from different countries in the world.

Urban competitiveness is a measure of a city’s ability of creating wealth. The report measures the comprehensive competitiveness of 500 cities around the world in terms of 9 indexes, namely GDP, per capita GDP, GDP per unit area, labor productivity, number of multi-national enterprises settled in the city, number of patent applications, price advantage, economic growth rate and employment rate.

 

Table1: Top 10 Cities on the 9 indices evaluating Urban Comprehensive Competitiveness

City

Nominal/Real Exchange Rate

Total GDP

GDP per Capita

GDP per Hectare

Growth Rate

Employment

Patent

Productivity

Multinational Co.

New York

470

4

6

12

332

254

4

1

2

London

474

90

19

38

337

322

127

16

145

Tokyo

479

196

131

180

356

338

167

135

240

Paris

471

24

128

7

368

314

65

180

107

Washington

475

105

4

92

320

145

110

22

95

Los Angels

472

33

63

76

355

163

128

95

160

Stockholm

476

153

26

19

381

401

77

62

138

Singapore

480

202

17

9

316

78

104

90

221

San Fransisco

478

195

8

61

354

108

188

38

197

Chicago

484

261

75

32

322

129

119

109

235

 

The top 20 most competitive cities showed by the report are New York City, London, Tokyo, Paris, Washington D.C. , Los Angeles, Stockholm, Singapore, San Francisco, Chicago, Toronto, Seoul, Boston, San Diego, Auckland (U.S.), Helsinki, Madrid, Vienna, Philadelphia, Houston. Hong Kong, Shanghai, Shenzhen, Beijing rank 26, 41, 64, and 66 respectively. Regions that perform best in terms of urban competitiveness and technological competitiveness are North America and Europe. Asian cities are becoming more and more competitive, especially those in China -- the top 2 cities with the fastest economy growth are mainly from China.

A further analysis of 9 indices shows that cities grow at different paces. This is true not only for cities in the world economic center, but also for those in the less developed areas. Some developed cities become more and more competitive, but some begin to wane. Some less developed cities are catching up, but some being left farther behind. The gap between the good performers and poor performers is widening. All these conditions show that a city’s global competitiveness is changing all the time -- everything is possible in the future. A city or a region has to keep working hard according to the law of development in order to avoid falling behind.

A detailed study of comparative analysis into 500 cities also shows that the market structure of urban competition in the world features a pattern of “oligarch monopolization”. GDP of the 10 largest cities accounts for 27% of the total of 500 cities. Global distribution of income is unequal—Europe and North America account for the most part while Africa the least and income of coastal areas usually much more than that of inland areas.

The report indicates that the economic decision centers are changing in the world. Top 10 cities with the most multinational corporations are: New York, London, Hong Kong, Paris, Tokyo, Singapore, Beijing, Shanghai, Moscow, Sydney.

While cities in developed countries play a dominant role, cities in emerging developing countries are also booming. Top 10 cities with the most patent applications are: Tokyo, Osaka, Paris, London, New York, Seoul, Stuttgart, San Diego, San Jose, and Stockholm. Shenzhen, Shanghai, and Beijing rank at 33, 47, and 56 respectively.

Table 2: Cities ranking top 20 on the indices of comprehensive competitiveness and each sub items

Rank

Nominal/Real Exchangerate

GDP

GDP Per Capita

GDP Per Square Kilometre

Employment Rate

1

Yangon

Tokyo

Geneva

New York

Moscow

2

Harare

Paris

New York

Geneva

Tijuana

3

Addis Ababa

New York

Oakland

Victoria

Baku

4

Phnom  Penh

London

Edinburgh

Macao

Acapulco

5

Pyongyang

Mexico City

Washington

Lyon

Quanzhou

6

Accra

Los Angeles

London

San Francisco

Oakland

7

Kinshasa

Hongkong

Oslo

Manchester

Al Kuwayt

8

Ho Chi Minh City

Seoul

Belfast

San Juan

Minsk

9

Hanoi

Sydney

Basel

Nottingham

Shenzhen

10

Kampala

Melbourne

Zurich

Kawasaki

Huizhou

11

Conakry

Chicago

Helsinki

Seoul

Weihai

12

Delhi

Shanghai

Paris

London

Dushanbe

13

Mumbai

Yokohama

Boston

Milan<, /SPAN>

Victoria

14

Calcutta

Singapore

San Jose

Nagoya

Beijing

15

Bangalore

Berlin

San Francisco

Tokyo

San Luis Potosi

16

Ahmedabad

Toronto

Stockholm

Boston

St. Petersburg

17

Lucknow

Madrid

Nottingham

Yokohama

Dongguan

18

Hyderabad

Houston

Bergen

Wilmington

Merida

19

Jaipur

Osaka

Glasgow

Bristol

Morelia

20

Chennai

Rome

Copenhagen

Honolulu

Arlington

Rank

Number of International Patents

Labor Productivity

Multinational Corporation Distribution

Real Economic Growth Rate(for 5 years)

Comprehensive Competitiveness

1

Tokyo

London

New York

Baotou

New York

2

Osaka

New York

London

Hohhot

London

3

Paris

Detroit

Hongkong

Yantai

Tokyo

4

London

New Orleans

Paris

Dongguan

Paris

5

New York

Philadelphia

Tokyo

Baku

Washington

6

Seoul

Boston

Singapore

Zhongshan

Los Angeles

7

Stuttgart

Cleveland

Beijing

Huizhou

Stockholm

8

San Diego

Oslo

Shanghai

Weifang

Singapore

9

San Jose

San Jose

Moscow

Wuhu

San Francisco

10

Stockholm

Baltimore

Sydney

Manaus

Chicago

11

Wilmington

Stockholm

Milan

Weihai

Toronto

12

Houston

Helsinki

Madrid

Hefei

Seoul

13

Yokohama

Oakland

Frankfurt

Doha

Boston

14

Washington

Buffalo

Brussels

Rizhao

San Diego

15

Palo Alto

Houston

Los Angeles

Nanchang

Oakland

16

Kawasaki

Glasgow

Toronto

Veracruz

Helsinki

17

San Francisco

Chicago

Taipei

Omsk

Madrid

18

Chiba

Nice

Seoul

Zibo

Vienna

19

Berlin

Atlanta

Warsaw

Shenzhen

Philadelphia

20

Kyoto

Marseille

Washington

Suzhou

Houston

 

The 103 indexes used in the report to measure different aspects of the 150 cities can be classified as seven explanatory components of urban competitiveness, including enterprise competitiveness, industrial structure, human resources, “hard” business environment, “soft” business environment, living environment, and global connection. The top 20 cities in each category are listed as follows:

Enterprise competitiveness: Seattle, Washington, Zurich, San Francisco, Berlin, Philadelphia, Dallas, The Hague, San Jose, Boston, Helsinki, Tokyo, Houston, Osaka, Munich, Kyoto, San Diego, Minneapolis, Los Angeles, Copenhagen.

Industrial structure: Tokyo, New York, London, Paris, Hong Kong, Chicago, Toronto, Taipei, Zurich, Singapore, Atlanta, Madrid, Sydney, Washington, Bombay, Seoul, Stockholm, Brussels, Dublin, Amsterdam.

Competitiveness of human resources: Paris, Tokyo, Sao Paulo, Singapore, Prague, Bogota, Mexico City, Washington, Seoul, The Hague, Moscow, Helsinki, Madrid, Liverpool, Stockholm, Beijing, San Jose, London, Rio Generaud, Warsaw.

“Hard” business environment : Tokyo, New York, Boston, San Francisco, Chicago, London, Washington, Philadelphia, San Jose, Seattle, Atlanta, Los Angeles, Houston, Yokohama, Kawasaki, St. Louis, Dallas, San Diego, Osaka, Kyoto.

“Soft” business environment : Singapore, Chicago, Hong Kong, Boston, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Wellington, Geneva, Seattle, Phoenix, Copenhagen, New York, Zurich, Las Vegas, San Jose, Auckland, Kawasaki, Stockholm, Sydney, Dublin.

Living environment: Paris, Sydney, Lisbon, Melbourne, Brisbane, Rome, Vienna, Milan, Athens, Auckland, Barcelona, Geneva, Brussels, Wellington, Munich, Las Vegas, Madrid, Sacramento, Frankfurt, Budapest.

Global connection: New York, London, Los Angeles, Paris, Singapore, Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Tokyo, Chicago, Boston, Dublin, Miami, Dubai, Shanghai, Hamburg, Philadelphia, Hong Kong, Barcelona, Athens, Sydney.

By utilizing the tool of Fuzzy Graph and Linear Regression, the analysis of the key elements that affect a city’s competitiveness shows that for each of the seven components, the most essential elements are:

For enterprise competitiveness - corporate management; for industrial structure -- industrial cluster; for human resources -- education; for hard business environment -- scientific and technological innovation; for soft business environment: strategic orientation; for living environment – quality of ecological environment; and for global connection – corporate connection.

Based on the criteria of Creativeness, Sustainability, and Duplicability, we choose 10 cities of the best performance in these aspects as a sample for case study. They are London, Seoul, Singapore, Toronto, Vienna, Helsinki, Phoenix, Dubai, Shenzhen and Yangzhou.

The report finds that good performers in the world are making the following efforts in order to win the fierce competition with their global rivals:

1. Establishing development strategies and providing guidance in planning;

2. Improving business environment and supporting small and medium-sized enterprises;

3. Upgrading industrial level and achieving the promotion of the city;

4. Offering life-long education to citizens and attracting talents from worldwide;

5. Paying more attention to the environment protection and pursuing sustainable development;

6. Establishing city brand and marketing the city;

7. Building up service-oriented government by implementing enterprise management model in city management;

8. Fostering city’s special characteristics and cultivating diversified cultures.

As over half of the total population now lives in cities, the report urges that with a growing urbanization, central government should attach greater importance to the sustainable development of economy, society, environment and culture, promote urban competitiveness and construct and develop their cities into the best home for people.

To achieve that goal, government officials have to deal with the following 10 important but complicated issues:

1. Delegating local government larger autonomy, and balance the financial and political power;

2. Creating a better environment for businesses, and encouraging market initiation in dealing with public affairs;

3. Maintaining local features while expanding communications with the world;

4. Providing life-long education to the public and make educated people as the source and beneficiary of industrial upgrade and innovation;

5. Encouraging people to start enterprises and do creative work and achieve a win-win outcome between immigrants and local people;

6. Taking every matter into consideration and balance the development of economy and society;

7. On the relationship between city and its surrounding areas, we should promote integration, stimulate ambition by competition, and share the achievement by cooperation;

8. Carrying out center oriented development strategy and develop multiple industries;

9. Preserving and inheriting history and culture and promoting sustainable development;

10. Developing business environment and residential environment at the same time and create a paradise for business and living.

 

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