London, New York and Tokyo occupy the top three positions for the second year running in the annual Global Power City Index published on Thursday by the Mori Memorial Foundation’s Institute for Urban Strategies.

Top spot continues to be held by London

The index, first published by the Tokyo research foundation in 2008, evaluates 44 cities around the world and ranks them on their attractiveness to creative individuals and enterprises. Cities are rated on the basis of 70 indicators in six categories: economy, R&D, cultural interaction, 'liveability', environment and accessibility.London retained its No 1 ranking for the sixth year running while Tokyo, which claimed the No 3 position for the first time last year, further improved its scores in the field of cultural interaction, closing the gap on second-placed New York.Paris declined in the rankings largely due to a spate of terrorist attacks, although most European cities scored highly in the 'liveability' and environment categories, while US cities maintained high scores in the areas of R&D.

Asian cities dominate top ten positions

Seven Asian cities, led by Beijing, Tokyo, Shanghai and Hong Kong, featured in the top 10 in the economy category, followed by Dubai, which featured for the first time in this year’s report.In the overall standings, Sydney climbed four places to edge into the top 10 for the first time in seven years. Cities such as Los Angeles (in 11th position overall), Beijing (13th), San Francisco (17th), Amsterdam (7th), Berlin (8th) and Frankfurt (12th) all significantly improved their rankings from last year, as did Vienna (14th), Stockholm (16th), Zurich (18th) and Copenhagen (20th).Hiroo Ichikawa, executive director of the Mori Memorial Foundation, commented, “In the last 10 years, the report has shown that the power of cities has been changing as a result of changes in the macro environment.

Challenge of rapid urbanisation and globalisation on global cities

"Our report suggests that a city’s overall power cannot be determined by a single factor, such as economy, but needs to take into account the many factors that define the city. Rapid urbanisation and globalisation pose both challenges and opportunities for cities, so for cities to thrive, they need to accurately assess their specific strengths and weaknesses, as well as their relative positioning against other cities."We believe that our report can help policy-makers and global companies achieve smarter planning and decision-making in their efforts to thrive in today’s highly competitive global environment.”

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On the top three cities, the foundation said:

• London’s core strengths lay in the category of cultural interaction. London continued to maximise its overall strengths by improved scores in the indicators of GDP growth rate and level of political, economic and business risk. While there remains some uncertainty surrounding the UK’s exit from the EU, London’s balanced strengths across several categories mean the city has the potential to turn challenges into opportunities, extending its commanding lead and continuing forward as the top-ranked city in which to live and work
• New York increased its scores in the economy category due to improvements in its nominal GDP and GDP growth rate, but failed to make any significant headway in its overall score, owing to weaker showings this year in the category of cultural interaction
• Tokyo maintained its No 3 position and further closed the gap on New York, largely due to improved cultural interaction indicators, in particular the number of visitors from abroad. Tokyo also further improved its scores in the field of accessibility, due largely to an increase in the number of direct flight connections between Tokyo and overseas cities

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