The rise of global cities. Nonetheless, there is another important phenomenon which is more and more thoroughly questioning the supremacy of the post-world war II international order and challenging nowadays’ geopolitical and economic balance.
Indeed, together with the emergence and affirmation of new markets and regional powers, new international actors are making their way in the global balance, becoming important political and economic decision-making poles with the capacity of contributing consistently to the world’s GDP and gaining an increasing weight in the global economy. These are nowadays’ global cities which are a direct consequence of the ongoing “urbanization of the world”, a phenomenon which, especially with reference to emerging markets, is taking place at a very high pace – as they are not only the ones witnessing “positive” demographic challenges (in terms of increasing population, compared to the “Western” part of the world), but also (and as a consequence) a continuous expansion of the urban population of their cities, thus producing new wave of consumers with spending power and with subsequent implications for these global cities in terms of the necessary investments to make to meet the increasing demand of these urban consumer classes.
Some numbers (according to a recent Mc Kinsey Global Institute study ):
(1) from 2010 to 2025, the GDP of the “City 600” (the top 600 cities by their contributino to global GDP growth 2010-2015) will rise by over $30 trillion or nearly 65% of global growth;
(2) the “emerging 440 cities” (the emerging market cities in the “City 600”) will contribute $ 23 trillion or 47% of global growth to 2025;
(3) 1 billion new consumers in emerging market cities by 2025;
(4) 60% of the new urban consumers will be in the “emerging 440 cities”.
Moreover, according to the 2014 Global City Index (GCI) developed by A.T. Kearny , which tracks major cities’ actual performance – it is interesting to note that although globally New York and London continue to lead the ranking, among the top 20 cities 7 are in the Asia-Pacific region (Tokyo, Hong Kong, Beijing, Singapore, Seoul, Sydney and Shanghai), with Beijing in eigth position, breaking into the top 10 for the first time, whereas Buenos Aires becomes the first Latin American city to join the top 20. Finally, the 2014 GCI includes also 18 new cities (six in the Middle East and North Africa, four in the Americas, three in Europe, three in sub-Saharan Africa and two in Asia Pacific). Budapest, Prague and Vancouver open the ranking of the new cities (ranking 46 to 48), with Tunis, Lahore and Kinshasa closing the ranking (81 to 83).
The rise of global cities. Nonetheless, there is another important phenomenon which is more and more thoroughly questioning the supremacy of the post-world war II international order and challenging nowadays’ geopolitical and economic balance.
Giuseppe Scognamiglio
