Traditional alpha cities challenged by up-and-coming regional centers

30 May 2011: New York City has emerged from the global recession as number one in the
2011 Cities of Opportunity report, while its traditional big four rivals - London, Paris and Tokyo
have dropped out of the top five. New York was the only traditional power center to maintain its
position in the face of growing competition from emerging regional centers, which are
increasingly luring talent and economic activity away from the big four.


The report, produced by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) and the non-profit Partnership for New York
City, aggregates and analyzes a range of objective data from respected sources. By consolidating this
information, the report is able to develop a quantitative ranking of 26 global financial centers in terms of
their comparative performance across the following ten key indicators: intellectual capital and innovation;
technology readiness; transportation and infrastructure; demographics and livability; economic clout; cost;
lifestyle assets; health safety and security; ease of doing business; and sustainability.

The big five
The most striking finding is that New York is the only traditional powerhouse to rank in the top five;
London, Paris and Tokyo all got knocked out of the top tier by Toronto, San Francisco, Stockholm and
Sydney, cities not known as key centers of global finance.

While these cities cannot match the size or economic clout of longstanding commercial hubs like London,
New York, Paris or Tokyo, their performance highlights the changing global marketplace - one that
rewards cities for taking a more holistic approach to nurturing, retaining and attracting creative minds.

Interestingly, the cities of Toronto, San Francisco, Stockholm and Sydney all are part of vital regions.
Notably also, alpha cities like London, Paris, Tokyo and New York are not bunched at the top. These
usual suspects of broad, Western socio-economic leadership - with rich recent histories, deep resources
and major capital markets - are spread through the top 10 and, in the case of Tokyo, fall to 14th overall.

This shift is reflected in the composition of the reports top five cities since its first release in 2007. In that
year, New York and Tokyo ranked first and second; London and Paris tied for third, with Toronto rounding
out the top cities. In 2008, London moved up to second place, replacing Tokyo, which dropped from the
top five. Last year, Singapore took the third spot from Chicago, behind New York and London, with
Chicago and Paris tied for fourth.

"Changes in communications, education and knowledge-sharing, transportation and urban migration are
transforming world dynamics," said Bob Moritz, Senior Partner of PwC. "Cities that want to thrive, need to
adapt to these changes. Size is no longer a leading predictor of influence. The success of cities such as
Toronto, San Francisco, Stockholm and Sydney sends a clear signal that holistic balance makes a real
difference."

Ranking of cities
(Overall and by selected criteria)

CITIES OVERALL Innovation Transportation Economics Sustainability
Abu Dhabi 19 21 19 22 26
Beijing 18 19 12 9 18
Berlin 13 12 18 15 1
Chicago 7 10 2 13 23
Hong Kong 10 16 8 4 19
Houston 11 9 22 16 24
Istanbul 24 26 20 23 11
Johannesburg 26 24 26 24 4
London 6 11 7 1 15
Los Angeles 12 6 21 20 20
Madrid 15 14 5 5 10
Mexico City 21 20 10 25 22
Moscow 22 17 14 18 25
Mumbai 27 25 24 19 5
New York City 1 3 3 3 17
Paris 8 5 1 2 12
San Francisco 3 4 4 14 7
Santiago 23 22 23 26 9
So Paulo 25 23 25 21 8
Seoul 16 13 9 17 13
Shanghai 20 18 15 8 14
Singapore 9 15 17 6 16
Stockholm 4 1 11 12 3
Sydney 5 8 13 11 2
Tokyo 14 7 6 10 21
Toronto 2 2 16 7 6

New York City
New York Citys top ranking can be linked to its increasingly more balanced economy. It is able to
compete with both historic economic centers like London and Paris but also smaller cities that have
invested in intellectual capital and technology and have embraced policies that promote quality of life and
sustainability.

New York City, which is home to more than 10 per cent of the Americas financial technology workers,
ranked first in Technology Readiness, an indicator of a citys ability to nurture a high-tech future and take
advantage of technological advances in the global economy. New York is closely followed by Seoul, then
Stockholm, San Francisco and Chicago.

New York also earned the highest ranking among the 26 cities in theLifestyle Assets category, which
measures cultural vibrancy, recreational opportunities, hotel rooms, skylines, tourism and green space.
This category favors larger, more mature cities that have well-established entertainment, tourism, fashion
and culinary industries. Paris is second on the list, followed by London, Toronto and Sydney.

New York City ranked third, behind London and Paris, when it comes toEconomic Clout, another category
that favors larger, more established cities. This category indicates a citys ability to influence world
markets, attract investment, and stimulate growth.

New York City and San Francisco tied for third in the Intellectual Capital and Innovation indicator, coming
in just behind Stockholm and Toronto. Paris rounded out the top five. This ranking is derived primarily
based on a citys share of top universities and research capabilities, as well as its percentage of
population with higher education.

New York also ranked third, behind Paris and Chicago, in Transportationand Infrastructure. This category
primarily measures a Citys overall ability to efficiently and cost-effectively transport people and goods, via
mass transit, airports and roads.

In yet another third place finish, New York rated just behind Hong Kong and Singapore for Ease of Doing
Business. This category measures how open a city is to workforce recruitment, flexible work rules and
hours, as we all as ease of hiring and firing workers.

New York ranked 14th in Demographics and Livability, which measures variables such as viable housing
options, commute times, climate and quality of life. This is one category in which the smaller cities
consistently outperform the worlds power cities. The top cites were Stockholm, Sydney, Toronto and
San Francisco; Los Angeles and Madrid tied for fifth place.

Despite Mayor Bloombergs comprehensive PlaNYC environmental initiative, New York City ranked 17th
out of the 26 cities in theSustainability category. Berlin, Sydney and Stockholm top this category. New
Yorks poor rating in part reflects the inherent challenges of a densely developed and highly trafficked
city. It also is an indication that the mayors sustainability plan will take some time to produce lasting
results, especially in light of setbacks such as the defeat of congestion pricing and a federal court ruling
that struck down the administrations effort to mandate greater fuel efficiency from the citys taxi fleet.

New York City ranked 11th out of the 26 cities surveyed in the Costcategory, which measures cost of
business occupancy, overall cost of living, purchasing power and total tax rates. North American cities
generally fared best in this category, taking the top five spots (Houston, Los Angeles, Chicago, San
Francisco and Toronto).

In the final category, New York City ranked ninth in Health, Safety and Security.

Methodology
Cities of Opportunity is based on publicly available data, using three main sources: global multilateral
development organizations such as the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund; national
statistics organizations, such as National Statistics in the UK and the Census Bureau in the US; and
commercial data providers. The data was collected during the second and third quarters of 2009. In the
majority of cases, the data used refers to 2008 and 2009. In some cases, national data was used as a
proxy for city data. Care has been taken to ensure that, where used, national data closely reflects the city.
The scoring methodology was developed to ensure transparency and simplicity for readers, as well as
comparability across cities.



Research Committee
Information Department -MQM