South Africa: a new BRiC in the making?
 
With three cities in the Emerging Markets Index, South Africa had better representation on the list than any other non-BRIC nation. Furthermore, its urban centers ?led by #11 overall Johannesburg, followed by Cape Town and Durban ?exhibited some
unexpected strengths among their counterparts and with nearly 50 million people, a third of whom are under 14 years of age and 60 percent of whom are urbanized, South Africa is clearly on the move and worth watching. South African cities serve as important gateways to other African markets and will grow in value as Africa becomes more open to Western companies and products.

Leaders of the Pack:

BRIC Cities in the Emerging Markets Index
 
 
  More surprising is Johannesburg, ranking #7 regionally, which reflects the growing economic strength of South Africa and its strong financial and commercial institutions. The strong showing of African cities in general, and South African cities in particular, indicates this area抯 growing global prominence. Tunis (#40 overall) and Cairo (#44 overall) also scored
well, suggesting that Africa抯 era of being overlooked may well be coming to an end. The strong showing of african cities in general,and south african cities in particular, indicates this area抯 growing global prominence.

Rank City Country Index Value:
1 Shanghai China 66.01
2 Beijing China 62. 5
3 Kuala Lumpur Malaysia 58.6
4 Guangzhou China 56.98
5 Bangkok Thailand 56.74
6 Shenzhen China 55.47
7 Johannesburg South Africa 55.42
8 Xiamen China 5 .4
9 Chengdu China 5 .18
10 Dalian China 5 .10

Dimension : Business Environment:

Dimension is also largely a country-level dimension. It is built on one city-level indicator (indicator h 揺ase of entry/exit?, and several country-level indicators including measures 揷orporate tax burden,?揷ontract enforcement,?and 揺ase of closing a business.?Together, they reflect the quality of the business environment.

The ranking is led by the three South African cities: Cape Town, Durban and Johannesburg. Interestingly, the only Asian cities on the list are Kuala Lumpur and Bangkok. Noticeably absent are all Chinese and Indian cities, resulting from
less than ideal contract enforcement laws and regulatory hurdles that businesses can sometimes
face in both countries.

Dimension 3: Ease of Doing Business/Livability
Business Environment
A. Ease of Starting
a Business
C. Ease of
Getting Credit
E. Corporate Tax
Burden
G. Ease of Closing
a Business
4 sub-indicators 4 sub-indicators 3 sub-indicators 3 sub-indicators
6 sub-indicators 3 sub-indicators 3 sub-indicators
B. Ease of Employing
Workers
D. Investor
Protection
F. Contract
Enforcement
H. Ease of
Entry/Exit

Rank City (Country) Dimension Score:
1 Cape Town, Durban, Johannesburg 11.95
2 Kuala Lumpur 11.87
Montevideo 11.59
4 Santiago 11.51
5 Sofia 11.09
6 Budapest 11.02
7 Mexico City, Monterrey 11.01
8 Bangkok 10.99
9 Bucharest 10.92
10 Lima 10.90

Financial Services Environment
B. Bond
Trading
A. Equities
Trading
C. Derivatives
Contracts
D. Commodities
Contracts
E. Financial
Services
Network
F. Banking
Services/
Currency
Exchange
Regulations

Table 10 presents the top ten rankings for
dimension 4.

Rank City Dimension Score:
1 Mumbai 8.46
2 Shanghai 7.67
3 Johannesburg 7.18
4 S鉶 Paulo 7.17
5 Moscow 7.04
6 Mexico City 6. 4
7 Bangkok 6.11
8 Kuala Lumpur 6.10
9 Istanbul 6.06
10 Buenos Aires 5.64

Quality of Urban Life:
C. Public Services
and Transport
A. Limitations on Personal
Freedom/Media and
Censorship
E. Climate G. Life Expectancy
at Birth
D. Recreation
and Culture
B. Medical and
Health
Considerations
H. World Heritage
Sites F. Infant Mortality
 

 Latin American cities dominate with six of the top 11 cities (due to tie scores), while Africa and eastern Europe have two and three cities, respectively. Budapest tops the list because of its openness (indicator 7a 搇imitations on personal freedom/media and censorship? and health conditions (indicator 7f 搃nfant mortality rate?and 7g 搇ife expectancy at birth?. Interestingly, there are no Asian cities among the top ten ranking for this dimension.

Rank City Dimension Score Quality of Life:
1 Budapest 8. 7
2 Warsaw 8.20
Buenos Aires 8.05
4 Mexico City, Montevideo 7.87
5 Santiago 7.77
6 Brasilia 7.70
7 Istanbul 7.68
8 Tunis 7.58
9 Cape Town 7.55
10 Quito 7.5

 
 
Dimension 8 is indicators

Table 14: ToP 10 Rankings by Dimension 8 Risk and Security and measure of Personal freedom :

E. Political and Social Environment
B. Political Rights and Civil Liberties

A. Democracy Index

C. Travel Warnings

D. Record of Natural

Disasters:
Including personal physical safety; five measures of travel warnings, and  natural disasters) and measures of the political and social environment.  Chinese cities are surprisingly absent.

Rank City Dimension Score
1 Budapest 9.11
2 Warsaw 8.76
Montevideo 8.71
4 Curitiba 8.55
5 Cape Town, Durban 8.49
6 Brasilia, Recife, Monterrey 8. 5
7 Buenos Aires 8. 0
8 Johannesburg 8.29
9 Sofia, Bangalore, Hyderabad 8.11
10 Coimbatore 8.07

  The growth potential in medium and large developing economies is ongoing. This trend will ultimately open up enormous opportunities for companies able to move quickly and decisively. These opportunities will include real estate, retailing and supermarkets, and the potential to provide sophisticated financial and business services. With this in mind, the Emerging Markets Index brought to light several cities worth watching. For example, all of the South African cities, as well as Tunis deserve careful consideration in the future.

Writers of the Study:

 28 MasterCard Worldwide Centers of Commerce: Emerging Markets Index:Professor Michael Goldberg, Chair Professor Emeritus, Sauder School of Business University of British Columbia, Canada Dr. Michael Goldberg has consulted to businesses and governments in Canada, the US and Asia,and lectured at 50 research institutes in 16 different countries. He was the chief academic officer at Universitas 21Global in Singapore and, prior to this, the associate vice president international at
the University of British Columbia (UBC). Dr. Goldberg earned his MA and Ph.D. in Economics at the University of California at Berkeley .Dr. Yuwa Hedrick-Wong Economic Advisor, MasterCard Worldwide Asia/Pacific Region, Singapore Dr. Yuwa Hedrick-Wong has served as strategy advisor for over 25 years and to leading multinational companies in the Asia/Pacific region and today is the economic advisor to MasterCard Worldwide in Asia/Pacific, including Forbes Asia.  He is adjunct professor at the School of Management,Fudan University, Shanghai. Dr. Hedrick-Wong studied at Trent University and pursued post-graduate training at the University of British Columbia and Simon Fraser University in Canada, where he received his Ph.D.

Mr. Manu Bhaskaran Partner/Head, Economic Research Centennial Group, Singapore
Mr. Manu Bhaskaran is a partner at Centennial Group based in Singapore, heading the group economic research practice for institutions with interests in Asia. He supervised Soci閠?G閚閞ale抯 Asian investment banking division and was an Executive Committee member, in charge of Asian equity research. He is also a member of the Competition Appeals Board, Singapore; a member of the Board of Advisors, Centre for Analytical Finance, Indian School of Business, Hyderabad, India; and Senior
Adjunct Fellow, Institute of Policy Studies, Singapore. He is an executive committee member of several boards, including Singapore Institute of International Affairs, and is vice president of the Economics Society of Singapore.

Mr. Bhaskaran has earned several degrees from Magdalene College, Cambridge University and Harvard University.

Professor Fan Gang
Director
National Economic Research Institute
Beijing, China
Professor Fan Gang, one of China抯 leading economists, is director of the National Economic Research Institute, as well as the China Reform Foundation in Beijing. Professor Fan has also served as advisor to the Board of Monetary Policy of the People抯 Bank of China, the Board of Foreign Exchange Administration, and the Monetary Administration of the Hong Kong SAR.
He was elected as one of the 揋lobal Leaders for Tomorrow?at the World Economic Forum in Davos in 1995, and in 2005 as one of the world抯 搕op 100 public intellectuals?by Foreign Policy (USA) and Prospectus (UK) magazines. Professor Fan was educated at Beijing University and received his Ph.D. in economics from the Graduate School of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. 0 MasterCard Worldwide Centers of Commerce: Emerging Markets Index

Professor William Lever
Emeritus Professor of Urban Studies University of Glasgow, Scotland Professor William Lever has consulted for the European Union, OECD, the British and Scottish governments, and several development agencies on social and economic dynamics. An author of six books on urban policy and the former editor of the journal Urban Studies, he is currently advisor to the Glasgow Urban Laboratory and a member of the World Urban Competitiveness Network. He has held visiting professorships at the Universities of Utrecht, Warsaw, Pittsburgh and Michigan State. Professor Lever was educated at Oxford University.

Professor Maurice Levi Bank of Montreal Professor of International Finance Sauder School of Business
University of British Columbia, Canada Professor Maurice Levi, the Bank of Montreal Professor Chair, is widely acknowledged as one of the world抯 leading experts on global commerce and international finance. He has taught at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, UC Berkeley, MIT, London Business School, and the University of New South Wales. He is the author of 21 books and 75 papers in academic journals.

Dr. Anthony Pellegrini Partner/Director of the Centennial Group, Washington, D.C. Dr. Pellegrini co-founded the International Association of Municipal Development Funds and, from 1996 to 2000, was Director of the Transportation, Water
& Urban Development Department at the World Bank. Dr. Pellegrini earned his Ph.D. from Stanford University.