Unit 4 5 Best Global Cities for Business

Ruoxuan Yang
Prof. Enos
Context Notes: This is an article about the 5 best global business cities in the world.
The information and the reasons that support each city in this ranking are based on
research and my own past travel experiences. This can be published in some
commercial and travel website such like tripadvisor , Expedia, and travel blogs. This
ranking is both based on some economic data ranking and my own knowledge and
experience. All these 5 cities, I lived over half year or travel there many times, I study
abroad in Tokyo and Geneva, and I come from Shanghai. I travel over 25 countries in
the world. So, I really want to list the best business cities not very professional, but
closed to what the students needs more. Thus, my support reasons may not that
professional, but as strong as I can. My article will focus on each citys strongest points
even I list their weakness. I consider in the limited words article, use my words to
support about why this city is one of the best is more useful than its weakness and fit to
my topic. Weakness point is for compare to strongest. Because as a senior economic
major student, these reasons and comments are the things I want to read and care
about when I searching for where to start my career. My audiences are students in
Economic and Business majors who are seeking for expatriate opportunities or new
places to start their career.

5 Best Global Cities for Business

What is the best city in the world? This question will surely invite a vast and varied
number of responses from different people, because everyone judges based on
different factors and perspectives. However, when judging a city for its best features in
regards to business, location is everything. More often than not, the success of
business not only depends on the type and viability of the business, but it also relies
heavily on the city where you decided to build your practice. For the large amount of
students seeking for new and fruitful opportunities, this ranking can be useful in your
consideration for the future. This may provide you an informative snapshot as to which
city should you consider after graduation. This ranking of the best 6 global cities for
business is based on four core metrics: Global Competitiveness points, environment,
financial power, and its economic performance. I evaluated each citys total score
based on those four factors with 10 points as the maximum, and also listed their best
and worst qualities. Hopefully, this can serve as an introductive guide to my audience
and open their gateway to delve into deeper research in their potential choices.

1. Tokyo, Japan

Score:9.3

Strongest advantages: Intellectual capital, GDP per capita, Innovation, business

environment

Weakness disadvantages: huge population, limited natural environment resources,

sustainability.

GDP 2014 (Millions of US$): 4,898,532

PPP: NO.27 $36,653

Japan is listed as the Top 3 GDP in business for the past 20 years. Its absolute
advantage lies in its diversification of commercial environment that makes it so
attractive to a lot of talents from all around the world. Furthermore, Tokyo is one of the,
if not the most, well-known city in Asia, as its financial power is so strong and is
consistently ranked as the third biggest economy in the world. As a commercial
metropolis, the opportunities it can offer to foreigners are immense. In addition, Tokyo is

very environmental as the citizens are very big on recycling their trash and etc. As such,
Tokyo is not only great for business, but it is also great for living too.

2. New York, USA

Score: 9.0

Strongest advantages: Intellectual capital, innovation, financial power

Weakness disadvantages: Cost, livability, environment and demographics

GDP 2014 (Millions of US$): 16,768,100 PPP: NO.10 $53,001

As one of the most famous financial city in the world, New York has tons of widely
recognized enterprises and global financial organizations. America is ranked as the Top
1 GDP country in the world, and New York City is arguably the most important city in
the States, as over 12% of its GDP comes from NYC. Business professionals should
pay close attention to the stock and financial market in New York as it is one of the
busiest and most publicly traded platforms in the financial industry. New York definitely
takes the lead when it comes to finance and business trends. Thus, you can expect to

find a vibrant and buzzing culture of businesses in this city, due to its strong innovation
ability that attracts many talented people from all around the world.

3. Singapore, Singapore

Score: 8.8

Strongest advantages: International financial hub in Asia, clean and green environment,
racial harmony

Weakness disadvantages: high competition due to small size, measure on qualifications

and elite-ness so high standards for foreigners who wish to stay, high cost of living

GDP 2014 (Millions of US$): 295,744 PPP: NO.3 $78,762

Situated in Southeast Asia, Singapore is a gem when it comes to finance and business
as it is well known for being the international financial hub in Asia. Not only is the
location convenient and prime for trading, Singapores business environment is often
known as efficient and transparent, with limited corruption and red tapes, making it easy
for foreigners to tap into business opportunities there. Furthermore, Singapore is a
country that embraces racial harmony, and as such, they welcome people from all

around the world as long as you have the necessary qualifications and education to do
well in the country. Lastly, Singapore is famously known for their extremely clean and
green environment, making it a very comfortable place to live and build a family in.

4. Geneva, Switzerland

Score: 8.5

Strongest advantages: Population, Location, Financial power

Weakness disadvantages: Cost

GDP 2014 (Millions of US$): 685,434 PPP: NO.9 $53,977

Geneva is one of the most important financial center with high competitiveness,
boasting in the Top3 ranking for the highest quality of life in the world. Geneva has
many worldwide centers for diplomacy due to its large amount of international
organizations. In fact, it has been called to be the most compact metropolis. Geneva is
also named as peace city which supports many foreign investments and admits many
foreigners for work each year. Furthermore, Geneva is beautiful in its natural landscape

and also enjoys a very clean and green environment. As such, its high advantages in
the finance, business and diplomatic industries make it a very attractive choice for
interested students and professionals all around the world to venture into.

5. ShangHai, China Score: 8.2

Strongest advantages: Intellectual capital, GDP, global financial originations, living cost,
business environment

Weakness disadvantages: huge population, sustainability.

GDP 2014 (Millions of US$): 9,181,204

PPP: NO.89

$6010

China is ranked as the Top 2 GDP and Top 1 biggest economy in the world in these
recent years, with over 20% of its GDP from Shanghai. Shanghai is the largest city by
population in the world, and boasts an impressive mixture of worldly financial hubs and
innovative business culture. As a global financial center, its transportation hub is also
considered one of the busiest container ports in todays world. Shanghai has the most

population of educated professionals in areas such as business and finance in Asia,

and as such, it is known as the showpiece of the booming economy of China.
Excellent Corporation of eastern and western culture is one of the biggest advantages
of Shanghai. Every country in the world, especially European countries, are reliant on
its trade daily. Furthermore, Shanghai is the perfect mixture of East meets West as it
possesses a great mixture of oriental charms with Western innovation and creativity. It
is definitely a very interesting city with loads to do and explore, making it a great
location for living too.

Conclusion
With globalization, it is definitely true that the world has become flatter as people
nowadays are able to take advantages of international opportunities present all around
the world for both their business and living advancements. Thus, it is imperative that
students and professionals know what they are looking for when making such a lifechanging choice. As mentioned in my introduction, different people will have different
yardsticks to measure what is considered the best city for their careers, thus there will
always not be one universal answer that suits everyone. As we know, efficiency and
ability to collect information is more critical to being an global city, that means the
employment quality and opportunity of employment behind each city. In fact, the truth is,
every city has its own unique set of charms and obstacles when it comes to doing
business and its standard of living. Therefore, I urge my audience to view this ranking

only as an informative brochure to kick-start their own research and not as the sole
source in which they rely their decisions on.

Response letter:
I would like to thank you Zhehui and Rebecca for their helpful peer review. The
thoughtful critiques and comments by them improve my article a lot, I am very
grateful to their advices. Zhehuis advices about my content helps me a lot, also
Rebeccas kindly reminder about my conclusion gave me a good thought reminder.
Such like Rebecca said I suppose you need to expand those categories a little bit
to explain why you think Tokyo is ranking No.1, it let me to focus on each citys
strongest, not the weakness, because strongest points are more support why it is
rank as No.1 at limited words. She also helps me think about that I need to add a
conclusion or a paragraph to wrap up my ideas. They are all in business major, so
their feeling helps me to consider that my audience really need. As an
entrepreneurship student, I know it is hard to open a business, and people wouldnt
just invest their money in a random city, they want to know more specific evidence
to show exactly which city is the best to invest in, Rebecca said, so when I rank
these cities, I consider the environment of investment into it. If it is worth to invest is
one of my considerations. Again, thank you for both kindly girls review. I am really
appreciated.