The best cities in the world

The Lobby
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Suppose you wanted to compile a list of:

The Best Cities in the World for Doing Business — All Things Considered.

What would you include in “all things considered”? Government regulation? Taxes? Real estate prices? The local labor market? Strength of the local banking sector? Language? Culture? Crime rate?

A think-tank in London, called Z/Yen Group, has been studying and ranking the financial centers (cities) of the world for over 4 years. Twice a year they release their findings, and the latest report was issued in March.

The current report, the ninth semi-annual report to date, is titled The Global Financial Centres Index - 9. It rates and ranks 75 financial centers (cities) around the world by gathering the ratings of thousands of financial services professionals and feeding this input into a complex algorithm which sifts and sorts the data. The resulting Index makes for interesting reading.

Here are the top 25 cities as determined by Z/Yen. For each city, a rank (from 1 to 25) and a rating (in points, determined by the algorithm) is shown for the current Index (GFCI-9), and for the last Index (GFCI-8) published 6 months ago.

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The complete (un-cropped) list of 75 cities can be found on pages 4 and 5 of the GFCI-9, which you can download here — Welcome to Long Finance — Click on the GFCI-9 icon to access the .pdf download.

Some general comments of interest (copied and pasted) from the current Index:

• there remains no significant difference between London, New York and Hong Kong in the GFCI 9 ratings; respondents continue to believe that these centres work together for mutual benefit;

• confidence amongst financial services professionals has fallen since GFCI 8, as shown by lower overall ratings…

• Asia continues to exhibit enhanced competitiveness with eight centres in the top twenty (against six North American centres and five European ones). In GFCI 1 (March 2007) there were just three Asian centres in the top twenty. Seoul was the largest riser moving into 16th place, up 25 points in the ratings;

• when questioned about which financial centres are likely to become more significant in the next few years, the top five centres mentioned are all Asian – Shanghai, Singapore, Seoul, Hong Kong and Beijing.

• despite Dubai’s widely publicised economic problems it still holds top position in the Middle East (and 28th overall), followed by Qatar which has moved up four places…Bahrain continues to slip…

• offshore centres (with the exception of the British Virgin Islands) fell further than the average…Jersey and Guernsey remain the leading offshore centres.

• Dublin continues its decline in GFCI…The trouble that the domestic banks find themselves in has…continued to damage Dublin’s reputation.

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There’s a 50+ page thread on forexfactory of a similar nature there.

A poster asked “What is the best place for someone to relocate for with being a full time self employed forex trader in mind?” and it started a pretty fantastic debate. I’m glad that we can talk about it here also (because babypips is far superior imho)

Some key points of interest to consider (depending on if we’re talking “doing business” as a generality, or for the sake of an individual retail forex trader like most of us) than Time Zone vs market(s) that you trade on, cost of living, reliability of internet, income tax laws and lastly culture/language or the ability to live there as a permanent residence in comfort. (There’s a substantially large difference between somewhere that’s great to visit and great to live.)

Anyways, with all that said, some of the asian cities are attractive because their time zone allows you to hit three major market times without becoming an insomniac and alot of them are fairly inexpensive to live in.

Personally, my top choices if I were to have to (or were able to ie. Not married with kids to think about) I’d easily consider one of the main eastern canadian major cities (Ottawa, Toronto, Montreal), another popular choice was the island of Malta for a number of advantages. It has a relaxing atmosphere, sub-tropical climate year round, lower income tax etc.

If anyone could actually afford to live there permanently, Monaco would probably be a no brainer as a ‘top place to live as a forex trader’ period. No income tax, luxury lifestyle, beautiful weather etc.

My random +2

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Of the nine cities on the list that I’ve visited, speaking purely from a “beauty of the city and surrounding area” perspective, I choose Munich or Paris.

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)))
I’m from London and I’m planning to move to New York. But now I’m confused - may be I should’t do that…

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Was Vancouver, BC one of those nine cities you’ve visited? If not, I recommend that you do but check the weather reports before you come…it tends to rain a lot, but when it’s not raining, it’s “pretty” awesome!
:slight_smile:

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Sweet Pip,

You’ll be pleased to see that your beloved Vancouver has moved up 5 places in the latest Z/Yen report —
from 22nd to 17th place.

Here’s a link to the September 2011 report (called GFCI-10), for anyone who’s interested — Report

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I have visited, only refers to “the beauty of the city and its surroundings” point of view, I choose to Munich and Paris.

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Stockholm is a beautiful city :slight_smile:

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Here’s some pics of Vancouver taken recently by an photo artist :wink:

Massive Panoramics - Fine art high resolution panoramic photography

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That picture of Vancouver is truly beautiful.

I think it depends on several things in your life and how flexible you are. How far do you want to move away from your parents or other close friends? Where do you get a work visa or at least a residency permit? For people who lived in warm weather or at the ocean before it will be difficult to go to a colder city like Stockholm or a smaller place like Luxemburg. People from big cities will have problems to adjust to life on a small island like Jersey or Guernsey or smaller cities like Geneva. There is only limited life on the streets, festivals or other things to do. If you are good in entertaining yourself or are just busy enough with your family then it’s fine but if you are e.g. single or just like to hang out with lots of people small places are not for you. It always depends what you are looking for. For me it could be Rio, Rome, Singapore, Miami or Buenos Aires.

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I am partial to New York. I realy love that city!

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Wow !
Beijing is rated like Washington D.C.

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This post is about [I]countries,[/I] not [I]cities.[/I] I’m posting it here because it [I]kinda[/I] goes along with the topic of this thread.
(Also, I don’t know where else to post it.)

Here is a copy-and-paste from [I][B]NewsMax[/B][/I] in which they summarize a report from the Cato Institute in the U.S., and the Fraser Institute in Canada, on the subject of economic freedom in the countries of the world. At the bottom of this post, I will link to the Cato report.

[U]From [I]NewsMax:[/I][/U]

U.S. Falls to 17th in Economic Freedom

The Cato Institute has released its latest annual report on the “Economic Freedom of the World,” and it shows that the United States ranks only at No. 17 among 152 nations surveyed.

According to Cato, "The cornerstones of economic freedom are personal choice, voluntary exchange, freedom to enter and compete in markets, and protection of persons and their property from aggression by others.

“Economic freedom is present when individuals are permitted to choose for themselves and engage in voluntary transactions as long as they do not harm the person or property of others.”

To compile its report, Cato assesses the economic freedom within a nation based on five areas: size of government, legal system and property rights, sound money, freedom to trade internationally, and regulation.

From 1980 to 2000, the United States was generally rated the third freest economy, behind only Hong Kong and Singapore, and in 2000 it was ranked second. But the rating dropped to No. 8 in 2005, to No. 16 in 2010, and to No. 17 in 2011, the most recent year for which sufficient data is available.

“The United States, long considered the standard bearer for economic freedom among large industrial nations, has experienced a substantial decline in economic freedom during the past decade,” Cato observed.

Hong Kong earns the top spot in the new report, followed by Singapore, New Zealand, Switzerland, United Arab Emirates, Mauritius, Finland, Bahrain, Canada, and Australia.

Among large economies, the United Kingdom is at No. 12, ahead of Germany (19), Japan (33), France (40), Russia (101), Brazil (102), India (111), and China (123).

The 10 lowest-rated countries among the 152 entities studied are Algeria, Democratic Republic of Congo, Burundi, Central African Republic, Angola, Chad, Zimbabwe, Republic of Congo, Myanmar, and in last place, Venezuela.

Nations in the top quartile on economic freedom had an average per-capita GDP of $36,446 in 2011, compared to $4,382 for nations in the bottom quartile, according to Cato.

Life expectancy is 79.2 years in nations in the top quartile compared to 60.2 years in the bottom quartile.

The poorest 10 percent of the population in nations in the bottom quartile had an average yearly income of just $932 in 2011.

I took the data from that article and listed the countries according to their ranking:

[U]Top Ten Countries Ranked According to Economic Freedom[/U]

1. Hong Kong --- the best of the best
2. Singapore
3. New Zealand
4. Switzerland
5. United Arab Emirates
6. Mauritius
7. Finland
8. Bahrain
9. Canada
  1. Australia

[U]Other Rankings[/U]

  1. United Kingdom

  2. United States

  3. Germany

  4. Japan

  5. France

  6. Russia

102, Brazil

  1. India

  2. China

[U]Bottom Ten Countries Ranked According to Economic Freedom[/U]

  1. Democratic Republic of Congo
  2. Burundi
  3. Central African Republic
  4. Angola
  5. Chad
  6. Zimbabwe
  7. Republic of Congo
  8. Myanmar
  9. Venezuela — the worst of the worst

Link to the Cato Institute’s summary of their publication [I]Economic Freedom of the World: 2013 Annual Report[/I] —
Economic Freedom of the World | Cato Institute The full report can be downloaded as a series of .pdfs.

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Don’t forget about rainy little Brighton :wink:

Not always the nicest, but i’ve been here for 19 years and still find it wonderful!

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In HK, trading income is apparently tax-free. Unbelievable.

Taxation in Hong Kong - OCRA Worldwide

Individuals pay no tax on investment income or capital gains, whether resident or not.

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I’ve always been a fan of San Diego (but I know it’s too small)

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I love San Diego, too. And remember, size isn’t everything.

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Los Angeles

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Monaco…

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I know I am biased its Newyork