Karachi: 57th city of the Globe

By Abu Afifa : The AT Kearney's Global Cities Index, which provides a ranking of the leading global cities around the world has ranked Karachi as the world's 57th most global city.

The Index rated Karachi 52nd for information exchange, 55th for political engagement and 56th in the doing business category.

But Pakistan's commercial hub was relatively low in the human capital and cultural experience lists, ranking 57th and 59th respectively.

Overall Karachi ranked ahead of Banglore (58) and Kolkata (60) .

The Global Cities Index, highlights the fact that no city dominates in all areas, suggesting that there is no such thing as a perfect global city. However, a few came close.

For 2008, the index ranked 60 cities from 40 countries. New York emerged as the number one global city this year, followed by London, Paris, and Tokyo. The Big Apple beat other global powerhouses largely on the back of its financial markets, through the networks of its multinationals and by the strength of its diverse creative class, says the study, developed by AT Kearney, Foreign Policy magazine, and the Chicago Council on Global Affairs

Buoyed by their strong financial links, Hong Kong and Singapore finished fifth and seventh, respectively. Chicago's strong human capital performance sent it to eighth spot. What's more, several strong performers are emerging from some of the formerly closed societies: Beijing (12), Moscow (19) and Shanghai (20). Dubai (27) is fast catching up too.

Methodology

By measuring cities’ international presence, we can get an accurate picture of globalization — the workings of the interconnected world. The index ranks cities on 24 metrics across five dimensions:

Business activity – Fortune Global 500 headquarters and Top 40 business service firms, size of stock and commodities markets, flow of goods, industry conferences

Human capital – data on top universities, international students, inhabitants with university degrees, size of foreign-born population, primary and secondary international schools

Information exchange – bureaus of global publications, coverage of international news, broadband penetration

Cultural experience – international visitors, performing arts venues, international shows and sporting events, diversity and quality of culinary scene

Political engagement – embassies, consulates, international organizations, think tanks, international policy conferences, and sister-city arrangements, investment promotion agencies and NGOs.