"CITIES are the great engines of growth in the world economy. Istanbul, with income growth of 5.5% and employment growth of 7.3% over the past year, is currently the world's best-performing city, according to a new report by the Brookings Institution and the London School of Economics".
"The report ranks 150 cities from across the globe according to growth in gross value added per person (a proxy for income) and employment. The 150 metropolitan areas represented just 12% of the world's population but accounted for 46% of the world's GDP in 2007. Some cities have plunged in the rankings since the "Great Recession". Dubai and Dublin, the second and sixth best-performing cities respectively between 1993 and 2007, now rank as the most stagnant."
(The Economist, Christmas for Turkey, November 30, 2010 - Click here)
Istanbul, a cities of legends and dreams, is poised for a 21st century renaissance where the past lives in the future and the future in the past. Its timeless charm inspires poetry. Click here However, while Istanbul may be the world's best performing city in terms of income and employment growth, the jury is still out whether it is the world's best intelligent city.
As urban sprawl, social divide and ecological sustainability degrade and limit many a city's future growth, a global race to build intelligent cities is on as they are poised to determine how sustainable will be the world's future growth.
The top 100 cities account for 38% of global GDP. By 2025, 25% of the world's population will live in the top 600 cities, accounting for 60% of global GDP, according to Mckinsey Global Institute's "Urban World: Mapping the Economic Power of Cities", March 2011. Visit the McKinsey report Download MGI - Urban World - Mapping the Economic Powe of Cities - March 2011 and an indepth video presentation on YouTube Click here
The real challenge is not to beat King Cnut in trying to hold back the tide but how to make cities more sustainable and intelligent. Outside McKinsey, an overview on Intelligent Cities is on TimeSpecials of Time Magazine on October 21, 2010. Click here The videos are also worth checking out.
While cities may concentrate wealth and economic growth, they are becoming hotbeds of an alarming urban divide in income, space, opportunities, and basic livelihood of food, shelter, health and education. Buildiing an intelligent city is not just a matter of better urban planning and design. A high-level policy strategy of economic, social, political, regional and ecological policies and effective action is a prerequsite.
It is becoming clear that more intelligent cities need to be built if the world is to have a better urban future.
(State of the World's Cities 2010/2011- Bridging the Urban Divide, Earthscan, UN Human Settlements Program, 2008 Click here)
Best regards,
Andrew
