Muscat jumps 8 places in Global Cities Index

Muscat, The Gulf Observer: Muscat has jumped 8 places in the 2023 Global Cities Index (GCI), which seeks to quantify the extent to which a city can attract, retain, and generate global flows of capital, people, and ideas.

GCI – developed by Kearney, a leading global management consulting firm – measures the performance of 156 cities around the world across five dimensions: Business activity, human capital, information exchange, cultural experience, and political engagement.

Ranked 118th in the world, Muscat performs best in the human capital dimension (96th), followed by political engagement (87th), business activity (122nd), cultural experience (131st), and information exchange (146th).

Dubai, ranked 23rd globally, has retained its leading position in the MENA region.

Doha is ranked second in MENA and 50th globally, while Tel Aviv stood third regionally and 57th worldwide. Other regional cities featured in the index include Riyadh (61st) and Abu Dhabi (66th).

In the global rankings, New York tops the list followed by London, Paris, Tokyo, and Beijing making the top five. The other five in the top include Brussels, Singapore, Los Angeles, Melbourne and Hong Kong.

‘These global cities are microcosms of the world, each with its own unique flavour. They serve as centres of social, political, and economic vibrancy that reflect the dynamic global environment,’ stated the Index report.

Average GCI scores have remained steady following several years of decline, with cities in the Middle East and Africa improving markedly. In particular, the capitals of the Gulf nations made major improvements in their overall scores, with Riyadh, Muscat, and Doha improving their overall rankings by nine, eight, and seven places respectively.

‘This growth was primarily driven by strong performance in the Human Capital dimension, as they capitalised on the return to pre-pandemic levels of freedom of international travel to attract large volumes of migrant talent and tourism.’