Dubai and Abu Dhabi have connected to the top of the list in the new global rankings for easy entry.
Dubai maintains the leading rank in the Kearney Middle East and North Africa (Mena) region city index, rising to the 24th place in the global cities index and listing in the top 25 of the global city index for the fourth time.
Ease of entry introduces a new rank under the human capital dimension, which points to improved scores for cities in attracting and retaining talent from other countries.
According to the report, Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Riyadh, and Dammam in Saudi Arabia were identified as adjustments to global economic and geopolitical challenges. In the business activity dimension, Dammam advanced by a total of 19 ranks, which were mainly owing to a 71 percent improvement in the city’s services sector: five of the largest service companies in the world have made their home in Dammam. “This is elaborated by the increasing significance of service sectors, especially in the GCC area where diversification of the economy is critical,” a statement argued. Abu Dhabi and Dubai were numbers one and two, respectively, for open immigration policies for the specific purpose of attracting talent, while Riyadh saw its ranking rise significantly for unicorn companies, the statement said.
Kearney’s annual Global Cities Report, comprising the Global Cities Index (GCI) and the Global Cities Outlook (GCO) is designed to quantify and assess the international integration and global nature of those major urban hubs that exert immense global impact by linking countries, businesses, and consumers around the globe. On balance, Middle Eastern cities fared stable on their scores this year, bar a higher improvement in the global services firms indicator within the business activity category, likely emblematic of a widening drive across the GCC for more diversified economies.
The GCI aims to measure the capability of a city in attracting, nurturing, and creating international flows of money, talent, and information. Cities are measured against five key dimensions: Human capital, information, culture, politics; and business.
The current analysis presents some evidence that the emergence of a new form of globalization is more distributed networked, and highly uncertain in the short term. ‘As new patterns of trades and capital assets establish, Middle Eastern cities have tremendous scope for building on strengths of geography, strong and diversifying economies, immigration attractiveness, and latent enabling technology to unlock and future-proof both economic addition and risk management,’ added Rudolph Lohmeyer, Kearney Partner, National Transformations Institute.
Global Cities Outlook (GCO) is therefore focused on the vision of prospective international status for every city. The security, stability, health, and environmental conscious consumers who keep going with their purchase expenditure are in a better place to sustain the next round of economic shocks.
Some cities have been able to continue to create innovation and remain competitive in generating patents and privet investment even in the falling Global Trade atmosphere and effect reductions in FDI. Also, those that have sustained moderate cost of capital and the enhanced ICT sector investment have remained to foster investment as well as economic growth even in high overall risk times globally.
In the Middle East, it is worth noting that Dubai, Makkah, and Muscat have all demonstrated these trends. On the entire list, Dubai was a 10-rank winner in innovation while both Makkah and Muscat also gained, by eight and 11 ranks respectively, private investment being the key indicator that improved the MENA region’s overall performance. These cities have gained the opportunities to keep low real interest rates and developing private markets at the same time along with carrying out ambitious agenda of economic diversification. Their concentration within the areas of innovations and investment security put them under the league of global economy’s pillar during the current period of hardship within the global macroeconomic environment.
Although geoeconomic processes have conditioned the formation of global cities, they face increasing environmental challenges associated with climate change. “While climate disasters have led to huge losses in money, cities which are significant consumers of energy and outputs of greenhouse gases are also on the receiving end,” the report said.
‘There are initiatives detected in cities to address sustainability activities and climate change, but too many are reactive measures to distinct issues. Instead of a reactive approach cities have to become more systems-oriented. This is possible through what we call a regenerative approach – one that focuses on building institutional capabilities and readiness in today and preparing for tomorrow, and for everyone,” said Sascha Treppte, Partner, Kearney Middle East, and Africa.
