Johannesburg has been ranked as one of the top 50 cities in the world that are hubs of the new worldwide economy, according to an index released on Tuesday.
Johannesburg — the only African city to make the top 50 — was ranked 47th in the MasterCard ”Worldwide Centres of Commerce Index”.
”There are a lot of things to be grateful [for], but the typical complaints have been proven, like crime and skills [shortages], in a ranking game [using] sophisticated international ranking practices,” said Mike Schussler, senior economist at T-Sec.
The index — developed by a worldwide panel of economic, urban development and social science experts — ranks the top cities according to six measures: legal and political frameworks, economic stability, ease of doing business, financial flow, business centre and knowledge creation, and information flow.
London is first in the index, followed by New York, Tokyo, Chicago and Hong Kong. Singapore, Frankfurt, Paris, Seoul and Los Angeles complete the top 10.
Schussler said while there is no doubt Johannesburg is a world-class city, it needs to strive to improve its knowledge base, network capabilities and transport infrastructure.
He said the knowledge base of a city measures both the whole input and output of education.
Schussler said factors taken into account include how many patents per resident per year are registered, how many school leavers and tertiary students there are and how many medical and masters of business administration students there are.
He said the education situation and the ”dire” skills shortage in Johannesburg need to be addressed. ”The skills shortage is not a legend — it is a fact.” The city needs to import skills to overcome the shortage.
Schussler said crime and law enforcement are both issues in which Johannesburg scores poorly, according to the index. There is a problem with the administration of law, he said.
Johannesburg has done well in terms of financial markets, and stock and bond market turnovers. Gross domestic product growth could be better, while inflation is relatively stable.
Schussler said Johannesburg lost many points because of South Africa’s volatile rand currency.
While public transport is not viewed as adequate in Johannesburg, the traffic jams in the city are not yet as bad as in some other big cities such as New York and Los Angeles.
He said Johannesburg needs to improve broadband access and speed to be able to compete globally.
Originally, about 300 cities were considered for the centres-of-commerce index. This was whittled down to a list of 89 cities and then down to 63 cities.
Cairo is the only other African city featured in the index — in 63rd position. Cape Town and Lagos fell out of consideration in the second round, said Schussler. — Sapa