Artículo No 10 Financial Times FT.comLex Cities: metropolis now

Published: February 18 2011 15:02 | Last updated: February 18 2011 18:59
“When a man rides a long time through wild regions,†the Italian novelist Italo Calvino wrote, “he feels the desire for a city.†It is a universal feeling: the proportion of the world’s urban dwellers exceeded rural dwellers for the first time a couple of years ago. If you have money to invest, that is great news. Cities galvanise economic growth, lift incomes, allow comparative advantages to be exploited and provide economies of scale.
The rise of urbanisation fits with the rise of China. In 2008, Shanghai was the only Chinese city (excluding Hong Kong) among the world’s 25 richest (measured as the city’s gross domestic product). Beijing and Guangzhou will have joined it by 2025, according to PwC data cited in a recent report on cities by Citigroup. So will Mumbai, Delhi and Rio de Janeiro.
Urbanisation is likely to have implications for investment and development patterns. São Paulo and Rio together account for 16 per cent of Brazil’s population but 30 per cent of its GDP. They should attract the lion’s share of inward investment. Urban sprawl and the routes between cities are becoming industrial corridors: the one from Mumbai to Delhi is 1,500km long.
Of course, the world’s older cities will continue to wield economic and other advantages. PwC does not expect any developing-world city to displace any of the richest five of 2008: Tokyo, New York, Los Angeles, Chicago and London. London and New York remain
pre-eminent global financial centres, while Tokyo is not only the world’s largest and richest city but the ultimate “primate city†– the business, financial, cultural and political capital of its country. Newer cities tend to specialise more: Citigroup points out that Mexico City, for example, has become the Latin American base for foreign companies.
Global investors usually think in terms of countries. They should be paying more attention to cities.
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