London, New York, Tokyo and Paris were on Tuesday rated as world’s most comprehensively attractive cities among the 44 covered in the Global Power City Index, GPCI, 2018 report published by The Mori Memorial Foundation’s Institute for Urban Strategies.
The Institute, is a research body established by Mori Building, a leading urban developer in Tokyo.
The annual GPCI report ranked major cities in terms of “magnetism,” or overall power to attract creative individuals and enterprises from around the world, since 2008. Cities are rated in terms of 70 indicators in six categories: Economy, R&D, Cultural Interaction, Livability, Environment and Accessibility.
According to the latest report, London topped the index while New York is rising fast and Tokyo creates separation and Paris recovers, with all the four retaining their last year’s ratings.
According to the report, London continued to surge ahead and even increase its score by further leveraging the undiminished momentum of the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games, upgrading its previously weakest category, Livability, and continued to show overwhelming strength in Cultural Interaction.
The report stated further: “While uncertainty exists regarding the U.K.’s exit from the EU, balanced strengths across several categories give London the potential to turn challenges into opportunities, extend its commanding lead and continue forward as the top-ranked city.
“With the global financial crisis finally behind it, New York marked its highest one-year score increase since the GPCI rankings began, as it benefits from the effects of a strong evaluation in Startup Environment and Variety of Workplace Options.
“New York also maintained its top position in the both field of Research & Development, and Economy due to improved results in Corporate Tax Rate. Potentially negative impact on U.S. GDP growth due to trade friction could influence New York’s future ranking, and Environment and Livability remain significant weaknesses.
“Tokyo, in the top 10 in all categories except Environment, broke into the Livability top 10 with improved Total Working Hours. Tokyo has boosted its score every year since 2015, but was relatively low in Commitment to Climate Action and dropped from #12 to #29 in Environment. Like London in 2012, Tokyo hopes to build on its score before and after hosting the Olympic and Paralympic Games in 2020.
“Paris, after slipping to fourth following multiple terrorist attacks in 2015, recovered to boost its overall score, including in Number of Foreign Visitors. With the Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games now official, Paris will likely compete with Tokyo for Games-related growth”, the
Other highlights of the GPCI 2018 report showed that Singapore came fifth based on its traditionally strong in Economic Freedom, Corporate Tax Rate, and International Conferences, now ranks first globally in Employee Life Satisfaction and first in Asia for its Startup Environment.
Other factors that aided Singapore’s high rating are improvements in number of foreign visitors and high scores in Number of Foreign Residents established Singapore as Asia’s leading international business hub.
On the sixth position is Amsterdam based on the city’s supportive, tech-ready city for business. The city was first in ICT Readiness and eighth in Startup Environment, and was evaluated as offering a high quality of life, including ranking second in Employee Life Satisfaction behind only Singapore.
Seoul, which came 7th once again scored highly in Research and Development, third in number of researchers, fifth in R & D expenditure, and second in Number of Patents. In the Environment category, it led all Asian cities in Commitment to Climate Action (14th overall) and Waste Recycle Rate (1st overall).
Other cities and their rankings are, Berlin which ranked 8th, Hong Kong 9th position; and Sydney which ranked 10th in the latest GPCI report.
