Nairobi has been ranked among the top ten emerging global cities
to watch by Chicago-based real estate management firm, Jones Lang
Lasalle.
The ranking, which is based on an aggregation of
150 global city indices, refers to Kenya’s capital as a “more stable
business environment relative to Lagos, Cairo and Addis Ababa.”
Austin in the US was ranked the top city to watch
in the globe, Australia’s Brisbane emerged number two while Calgary in
Canada was ranked third. http://www.princelinkconsultants.com/index.php/crowd-funding
Nairobi was placed number ten in a list that also
featured Colombo (Sri Lanka), Nanjing (China), Riyadh (Saudi Arabia),
Santiago de Chile, ShenZhen (China) and Tel Aviv (Israel).
“Nairobi is now one of Africa’s leading
outsourcing centres, based particularly on its ability to attract human
talent. An increasingly engaged national government has established a
Ministry of Metropolitan Development to harness Nairobi’s regional
potential as a liveable and resilient African metropolis,” notes the
Jones Lang LaSalle report.
The firm specialises in commercial real estate
services and investment management, and has more than 40,000 staff
spread across 70 countries.
The report also looked at Nairobi’s level of communication, emerging middle class and rapid urbanisation.
The city’s position as the gateway to other
eastern African economies and its status as a melting pot for highly
skilled talent helped it to beat other African cities in the ranking.
South Africa, however, remains the country with the two hottest cities to watch on the continent.
“Johannesburg and Cape Town nevertheless remain
clearly the most competitive cities in Africa. In most studies, the
South African pair is not yet closely rivaled by any of Cairo, Nairobi
or Lagos. Many of these latter centers show economic potential, but
security, infrastructure and social deficiencies are holding them back
in comprehensive benchmarks.”
The 150 cities are ranked in different categories,
including Emerging World Cities, Self-Government and the Fiscal
Capacity of Cities.
Ben Woodhams, the chief executive at property
management firm Knight Frank, said that national carrier Kenya Airways
has helped to elevate Nairobi’s status among emerging global cities.
He reckoned that Kenya Airways’ route expansion
has acted as a magnet for multinational companies in search of new
regional offices.
“Without Kenya Airways, offices would have moved to Rwanda,” said Mr Woodhams.
The national carrier has increased its
destinations to 62 from 25 over the past decade and it will add nine
more routes beginning 2014, further opening up Nairobi. http://www.princelinkconsultants.com/index.php/crowd-funding
No comments:
Post a Comment