2005-2006

The abstract of “2005~2006 Global Urban Competitiveness Report”

Employing 75 indicators, "2005 ~ 2006 Global Urban Competitiveness Report" has evaluated 110 cities around the world on their comprehensive competitiveness, talent competitiveness, corporation competitiveness, living environment competitiveness, business environment competitiveness, innovation environment competitiveness, social environment competitiveness and the overall competitiveness of industries respectively.

The ranking of the report on the 110 cities in terms of comprehensive competitiveness show that among the top 20 cities, 10 are in Europe, 8 in the United States, and 2 in Asia (See Table 1) This result quite matches the world's current situation of economic development. European and American cities demonstrate a strong comprehensive competitiveness and an obvious competitive advantage. Tokyo and Hong Kong in Asia have both get involved into the top level of the most developed cities in the world after several years of development.

Table 1：Top 20 most competitive cities

From the perspective of city belts, most of the top 20 cities are located in the famous city groups or city belts of the world. For example, New York, Philadelphia, Boston and Washington are located in the northeastern city group of the United States, Chicago in the North American Great Lakes city belt, Los Angeles, San Francisco and San Diego in California city belt, London, Paris, Frankfurt and Brussels and so on in the Mid-European city belt, Tokyo in Japan’s Toukaidou city belt along the Pacific coast, and Hong Kong in the Pearl River Delta city belt of China. This indicates that city group (belt) is the cradle of cultivating strong and competitive international cities.

1. Here is the ranking of cities in terms of six major criteria of competitiveness around the globe.
(1) Top 20 cities according to talent competitiveness:
San Jose, Boston, Paris, Minneapolis, San Francisco, Austin, London, Seattle, Washington, Baltimore, Copenhagen, Munich, Tokyo, Madrid, Singapore, Helsinki, Wellington, Zurich, Atlanta, Denver.

(2) Top 20 cities according to corporation competitiveness:
Tokyo, New York, London, Osaka, Paris, Chicago, Houston, Singapore, Hong Kong, San Jose, Philadelphia, Dallas, Boston, Pittsburgh, Atlanta, Los Angeles, Toronto, Seoul, Melbourne, San Francisco.

(3) Top 20 cities according to living environment competitiveness:
Zurich, Geneva, Vienna, Vancouver, Frankfurt, Munich, Copenhagen, Auckland, Sydney, Amsterdam, Brussels, Berlin, Melbourne, Toronto, Wellington, Canberra, Winnipeg, Ottawa, Nuremberg, Dublin, Montreal.

(4) Top 20 cities according to business environment competitiveness:
London, New York, Sydney, Singapore, Hong Kong,, Tokyo, Osaka, Melbourne, Amsterdam, Los Angeles, Chicago, Oakland, Houston, Canberra, Berlin, Miami, Copenhagen, San Francisco, Atlanta, Boston.

(5) Top 20 cities according to innovation environment competitiveness:
New York, Los Angeles, Washington, Seattle, Boston, Philadelphia, Tokyo, Paris, Chicago, Berlin, San Francisco, Baltimore, Toronto, Houston, Helsinki, Minneapolis, London, Montreal, Pittsburgh, Copenhagen.

(6) Top 20 cities according to public environment competitiveness:
Ulsan, Sydney, Geneva, San Jose, Dubai, Busan, Yokohama, Minneapolis, Seoul, Kyoto, Zurich, San Francisco, Charlotte, Kaohsiung, Santiago, Taipei, Munich, Las Vegas, Kawasaki , Vienna.

According to the report, from the perspective of city's comprehensive competitiveness, European and North American cities demonstrate a strong overall competitiveness and an obvious competitive advantage; there is a wide gap between cities of developed countries in Europe and America and those of developing countries in Asia, Africa, and South America, which is also in accordance with the current situation of economic development in the world.

It is worth noting that Asian cities, represented by Tokyo and Hong Kong, are posing a continuous challenge on the position of European and North American cities in the world. Judging for the explanative indicators, North American and European cities are in a leading position in terms of most indicators and they enjoy a huge advantage; except for Tokyo, Singapore and Hong Kong, whose main indictors are close to or exceeding cities in Europe and America, the ranking of all the other cities in Asia, Africa, South American are relatively low.

On the whole, cities in China, particularly those not located in coastal areas which scored rather low, got comparatively lower ranks. This shows that the competitiveness of cities in China is still relatively weak and the gap with those international metropolises are quite obvious.

In addition, the report also made a comparison among five sub criteria of competitiveness which demonstrates the corporation competitiveness. They are the competitiveness of manufacturing industry, distributive service industry, consumer service industry, social service industry and productive service industry.

2. Here is the ranking of cities in terms of industrial productivity competitiveness.
(1) Top 20 cities according to manufacturing competitiveness:
Ulsan, Kawasaki, Frankfurt, San Jose, Milan, Kyoto, Vienna, Nuremberg, Detroit, Glasgow, Liverpool, Milwaukee, Osaka, Munich, Montreal, Lyon, Nagoya, Melbourne, Zhuhai, Tokyo.

(2) Top 20 cities according to distributive service industry competitiveness:
Madrid, Frankfurt, Zurich, Paris, Berlin, Munich, Geneva, Memphis, Cape Town, Lyon, Helsinki, Hong Kong, Kobe, Hamburg, Sapporo, Vienna, Nuremberg, Copenhagen, Milan, Miami.

(3) Top 20 cities according to consumer service industry competitiveness:
Las Vegas, Kaohsiung, Taipei, Paris, Hong Kong, Macau, San Antonio, Sendai, Osaka, Memphis, Cincinnati, Miami, Nagoya, Sapporo, Kyoto, Sacramento, Milan, Copenhagen, Columbus, San Diego.

(4) Top 20 cities according to social service industry competitiveness:
Washington, Geneva, Pittsburgh, Baltimore, Canberra, St. Louis, Boston, Philadelphia, Zurich, Brussels, Nashville, Seattle, Minneapolis, New York, Amsterdam, Sacramento, Cleveland, Detroit, Austin, Columbus.

(5) Top 20 cities according to production service industry competitiveness:
Dublin, San Francisco, Atlanta, Amsterdam, Washington, Charlotte, London, New York, Denver, Los Angeles, San Diego, Munich, Seattle, Dallas, Boston, Minneapolis, Chicago, Phoenix, Brussels, Austin.

Through comprehensive comparative analysis of the five sub criteria of competitiveness, cities in the United States are competitive in most of the industries. Many cities of the European Union's member countries are also outstanding. In certain industries, Asian cities are also competitive. These cities have a good industry framework and high productivity, which plays an important role in economic development.

The industrial competitiveness of China and other developing countries is relatively weak. There is a significant gap between cities in inland China and those in developed cities particularly in the aspect of industrial labor productivity

The theme of this report is: “Competitiveness Challenges the World Urban System”. The report found out: 1, globally speaking, the innovative and sci-tech competitiveness of cities and cities’ upgrading poses a challenge on the traditional urban system; 2, some marginal cities have been rising rapidly, so do their competitiveness. This is also challenging the global urban system. In addition, the report also put forward constructive suggestions on strategies to enhance the competitiveness of cities around the world.