Muscat – The capital city of Muscat has jumped eight places in the 2023 Global Cities Index (GCI), which seeks to quantify the extent to which a city can attract, retain, and generate global flows of capital, people, and ideas.

GCI – developed by Kearney, a leading global management consulting firm – measures the performance of 156 cities around the world across five dimensions: Business activity, human capital, information exchange, cultural experience, and political engagement.

Ranked 118th in the world, Muscat performs best in the human capital dimension (96th), followed by political engagement (87th), business activity (122nd), cultural experience (131st), and information exchange (146th).

Dubai, ranked 23rd globally, has retained its leading position in the MENA region.

Doha is ranked second in MENA and 50th globally, while Tel Aviv stood third regionally and 57th worldwide. Other regional cities featured in the index include Riyadh (61st) and Abu Dhabi (66th).

In the global rankings, New York tops the list followed by London, Paris, Tokyo, and Beijing making the top five. The other five in the top include Brussels, Singapore, Los Angeles, Melbourne and Hong Kong.

‘These global cities are microcosms of the world, each with its own unique flavour. They serve as centres of social, political, and economic vibrancy that reflect the dynamic global environment,’ stated the Index report.

Average GCI scores have remained steady following several years of decline, with cities in the Middle East and Africa improving markedly. In particular, the capitals of the Gulf nations made major improvements in their overall scores, with Riyadh, Muscat, and Doha improving their overall rankings by nine, eight, and seven places respectively.

‘This growth was primarily driven by strong performance in the Human Capital dimension, as they capitalised on the return to pre-pandemic levels of freedom of international travel to attract large volumes of migrant talent and tourism.’

Global Cities Outlook

The index also gives Global Cities Outlook where it ranks cities, which are best poised for global leadership in the future.

Muscat is ranked 44th – up 10 places from 2022 in the Global Cities Outlook, while Abu Dhabi is ranked 27th, Dubai 38th, Doha 68 and Riyadh 99th. The outlook is based on four broad indicators of urban potential: Personal well-being, economics, innovation, and governance.

“As global trade returns to normalised levels, key cities in the Gulf have emerged as beacons of prosperity, resilience, and opportunity,” said Rudolph Lohmeyer, Kearney Partner, National Transformation Institute.

“Their (Gulf cities’) resilient economic performance amid challenging global conditions, has succeeded in drawing ever-greater numbers of expats making them a remarkable success story in the post-pandemic world.”

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