Singapore is 4th in finance hub list

Source : Straits Times - 10 Sep 2008

Asia and Europe putting American cities in the shade, survey shows

Asia and Europe are now outperforming America when it comes to providing the world’s commerce and finance hubs, one of the experts behind a recent study of global cities says.

Writing in the latest edition of Newsweek, Columbia University professor Saskia Sassen said that this year’s MasterCard Worldwide Centres of Commerce study revealed ‘the biggest shift is the ascendancy of Asia and Europe relative to America’.

And illustrating the point, over the last two years, Singapore has risen from sixth place to knock Chicago out of the No. 4 spot in the June study’s ranking of the world’s 75 most competitive cities.

Overall, there are now just two American cities in the top 15, while Tokyo (at No. 3), Hong Kong (No. 6) and Seoul (No. 9) join Singapore in strengthening Asia’s foothold in the top rankings.

Europe does even better, claiming seven of the top 15 spots, while a number of United States cities have slipped down the rankings, including Los Angeles - which fell from No. 10 to No. 17 - and Boston, down to No. 21 from No. 13.

Prof Sassen said that Singapore was also part of another emerging trend, in which small cities are punching above their weight.

‘The rise of Amsterdam and Madrid reflects the broader emergence of small cities, often in small countries, as significant platforms for global firms and markets,’ she wrote.

The cities were ranked based on 100 factors, ranging from the efficiency of political and legal systems, the number of days it takes to open a firm in them and the levels of ‘brand recognition’ they achieve. And while all the big American cities still score high in terms of legal, political and business conditions, she said: ‘Stockholm, Singapore and Copenhagen do even better.’

Where the US really loses ground to newcomers like Dubai, the sociology professor said, is on criteria such as ‘ease of doing business’.

And she said: ‘Cities like Dubai and Singapore are rising as platforms for investment in their regions and often boast stronger legal systems as well as more stable regimes and better overall business and living conditions than powerful megacities.’

She added that it was a far cry from the 1980s when, as globalisation began to take off, just three cities - New York, London and Tokyo - were able to act as bridges between the massive emerging global markets and national economies.

Prof Sassen said that at the same time as the global economy has continued to expand, ‘the number of cities that can now deliver global-city functions has kept growing’.

And she pointed out that there was no such thing as a ‘perfect global city’, with even London and New York - which occupy the top two spots in the survey - scoring poorly in some of the study’s criteria.

This chimes with comments made by Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong when Singapore hosted the first World Cities Summit in June.

Talking about the way the Republic had dealt with problems of urban development, he said: ‘Some of Singapore’s solutions may be relevant to other emerging cities in Asia and the world.

‘But no single city or country will have all the answers. Instead, we need closer collaboration to share expertise and experiences, pursue joint research and develop pragmatic, workable solutions.’