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Economy

London still world leader

Written by Paul Williams
Tuesday, 18 November 2008
ULI Launches Global City Index Report: London, New York still rank as world leaders. London and New York still rank among the world's most successful cities, but face increasing competition from other global cities, according to an analysis of 30 major global indices and other data prepared by the Urban Land Institute, a global research and education institute dedicated to responsible land use. Related Articles New Nordic Area Manager for Lloyds Lord Levene to continue as Lloyds Chairman London finance job hiring declines London November retail figures down Review of London Plan announced The report, entitled "City Success: What do the global indices tell us?" was released today at ULI's London New York Dialogue Conference in London. The conference examined the dominance of London and New York as global financial and cultural centers in the late 20th century, and explored how they are reacting to the worldwide economic crisis and how they must adjust to retain their top-ranking positions in the decades to come. Both cities face formidable challenges from global cities such as Tokyo, Hong Kong, Paris, Shanghai, Dubai and Mumbai, noted Richard Rosan, president, ULI Worldwide. "Cities of the 21st century are hubs of a new globalised society. They are physical nodes of the global economy, the environment, information systems, infrastructure and leisure and culture. As a result, the success of these cities is of vital importance not only to city residents, but to whole nations and the global society at large," says Rosan. The global indices report, prepared by ULI Senior Fellow Greg Clark, reviews approximately 30 major indices that measure factors ranging from investment prospects to climate change mitigation to overall community livability. It includes a wide variety of indices, from the MasterCard "Worldwide Centres of Commerce Index" to the Emerging Trends in Real Estate series published by ULI and PricewaterhouseCoopers to The Climate Group's "Low Carbon: Leader Cities" ranking. From those measurements, the report seeks to draw conclusions about city performance and success factors, and offer views about which cities succeed and why. According to William Kistler, president of ULI Europe, the Middle East, India and Africa, the global indices report shows some common indicators of success. "Connectivity and space to grow, quality of life and place, skills of the labour force, innovation and creativity, entrepreneurship and transparency of the business environment are all key factors for world-class cities," Kistler said. "However, these might be considered as measures for short-term success. To achieve lasting success, other measures must be considered, such as openness to international populations, adaptability of the city's brand, the city's role in fostering international trade, power and influence of the language, investment in the city from all sources, and sustainability in terms of climate and environmental sensitivity," Kistler continued. The report shows that London and New York appear to succeed not just because they do well on well understood measures of productivity (such as skills and connectivity), but also because the English Language, Anglo American legal system and capital markets, their openness to International Populations, and their cultural endowments are substantial. In addition, the report finds that major cities in emerging economies are improving rapidly on most measures, and London and New York will face competition from these cities (Hong Kong, Shanghai, Sao Paolo, Dubai for example) and also from other smaller cities that have strong niches and fewer problems to solve. The report subdivides the indices into four key clusters that illustrate the core strengths and weaknesses of cities: 1. Global Economic Reach - London and New York are recognised as joint world leaders, followed by Paris, Tokyo and Chicago. 2. Quality of Life - Identifies Copenhagen as a world leader followed jointly by Vancouver, Vienna and Zurich. 3. Image and Attractiveness - Paris tops the rankings followed by London, with Sydney, Vancouver, Venice and Vienna in joint third place. 4. Investment and Fiscal - New York and Paris share first place followed by London. In addition a fifth cluster focusing on Knowledge Base has been developed that generally measures research output from universities based in cities. However, this indices was not used to calculate the aggregated city positioning, because it does not offer a comprehensive index. In this cluster, Stanford topped the rankings followed jointly by San Jose, Boston and Harvard.