Singapore moves up to 8th position in Schroders Global Cities Index, emerges as top city in Asia

SINGAPORE has moved up 3 ranks in the past year to 8th place in the Schroders Global Cities Index in 2021, overtaking Hong Kong to emerge as the top city in Asia. 

Other Asian representatives in the top 30 are Hong Kong, Shenzhen, Beijing, Hangzhou, Shanghai and Tokyo.

The index looks to identify and rank the best global cities using 4 metrics; economic, environmental, innovation and transport, said Schroders in a release on Wednesday (Apr 27). It identifies those cities with a combination of economic dynamism, world-class universities, forward-thinking environmental policies and excellent transport infrastructure.

This year, London held on to the top spot for the second year in a row, scoring well on all 4 of the index’s metrics. The city was also ranked first among its global peers for innovation.

According to the index, Singapore scored best on transport, ranking in the global top 5. It also ranks in the top 10 for innovation.

Meanwhile, Hong Kong moved down to the second spot in Asia and 9th globally. It previously ranked 6th globally in the 2020 index. Despite falling back slightly, the city continued to rank highly in a number of areas, particularly innovation and in its access to transport infrastructure, said Schroders.

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On Singapore’s ranking, Hugo Machin, portfolio manager, Schroders Global Cities, said that Singapore did well across all aspects even though it does not dominate in any particular category.

“Its airport has the highest airport quality score in our database, if not the highest utility,” he noted. “Furthermore, Singapore has a very large commercial port, excellent bus coverage, and an above-average metro system. Their traffic is their weakest performer, but for a city of that density, it should be expected. The government is also actively managing this by increasing barriers to private car ownership.”