Singapore, Tokyo, Hong Kong among top 10 competitive cities

New York, London and Paris are facing competition from cities in Europe, Asia and the Middle East to become the most competitive cities in the world, according to the 2019 Global Cities Report.

For the last decade, the first three cities have maintained their position as the world’s most competitive cities based on the human capital in the city, political engagement, information exchange and business activity and culture.

Singapore placed sixth in this list with Tokyo (4th), Hong Kong (5th), Los Angeles (7th), Chicago (8th), Beijing (9th) and Washington D.C. (10th), joining the other cities among the top 10.

However, the report also ranks cities based on their future outlook as well. Metrics such as personal well-being, economics, innovation and government, are taken into consideration to rank cities based on their predicted performance.

For the outlook, Singapore rose to the second place thus rising by three places since 2018. Even amidst Brexit tensions, London climbed up two spots since 2018 while last year’s winner, San Francisco, dropped to the third position because other cities did better on the personal well-being and foreign investment metrics.

The report also took special notice of the progress that Chinese cities have over the past several years with Beijing featuring among the top 10 cities. As compared to other US cities, Chinese ones have seen three times faster growth.