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Asia hosts 15 of the top 30 cities expected to drive growth globally, according to the 2008 Mastercard Worldwide Centers of Commerce: Emerging markets Index. While Chinese cities—15 out of 65 including Shanghai, Beijing, Guangzhou and Shenzhen—dominated the index, Mumbai represented India in the top 20 and Kuala Lumpur and Bangkok also proved themselves as strong regional growth hubs amongst Asian nations.
The report says it compares emerging cities as regional growth hubs as compared to countries as due to their dense, hybrid populations its these cities that have emerged as financial and intellectual growth engines rather than the countries they belong to.
Established commercial centers on the world stage, Chinese cities overpower the list for being optimal candidates for national, regional and financial headquarters operations, commercial drivers in the region and providing a high level of commercial, IT and education connectivity.
The eight Indian cities ranked in the list dominate due to their strength in financial and outsourcing service. According to Mastercard, these cities are rapidly emerging onto the world stage but their (or their home country’s) economic and regional functions are more limited than cities ranked higher in the list.
Cities such as Kuala Lumpur ranked 4 and Bangkok ranked 9 are other high ranking Asian nations given their stature as regional commercial centers and suitable cities for national, regional and financial institutions to be based.
The Index ranked 65 cities in emerging markets across Asia, Africa, South America and Eastern Europe. Mastercard ranked the cities based on eight dimensions each given different weights – Economic and commercial environment, Economic growth and development, Business Environment, Financial services Environment, Commercial Connectivity, Education and IT Connectivity, Quality of Urban life, Risk and Security.
