In a newly published report from global real estate firm JLL and The Business of Cities Group, Singapore has eased past Tokyo to take the top slot amongst Asian cities. According to the report - Singapore’s success story has taken on new dimensions as it overtakes Tokyo and Paris in a majority of leading indices for the first time.
It leads the Asian charge in higher education, mobility, science, broadband and technology platform indices, and is the world ‘number one’ city for business friendliness. The city’s brand rankings also indicate it is beginning to lose its reputation for a lack of vibrancy among expats and tourists. Globally Singapore was ranked third behind New York and London respectively while Hong Kong ranked fifth and Tokyo sixth.
The report also highlighted that China’s urban system is entering a new cycle of growth and consolidation with many of its cities rapidly moving up the value chain from low-value manufacturing to middle and higher-end production and services. As they begin to compete for globally mobile goods, China’s larger cities are becoming widely measured in city indices for the first time.
Across more than 200 indices worldwide, there are now thousands of datapoints from which urban performance in China can now be tracked. Analysis of this data reveals an increasingly stable pattern among the leading cluster of cities, and rapid advances for quality-focused, medium-sized cities competing for investment.
Beijing and Shanghai have four major advantages: depth of talent, deep global connectivity, broad cultural assets and high quality of public sector management.
