2005-2006

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 27^th, 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

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.