Cities arranged by intellect – Kommersant

The consulting company Z/Yen Group has published the next Smart Centers Index rating, which assesses the level of investment, the regulatory environment and the business climate for the development of modern technologies in different cities of the world. In the first place of the list of 77 cities this year was London, which displaced last year’s leader New York. Moscow took 67th place, up one position since last year and finding itself between Madrid and Mexico City.

Published today ranking The British Z/Yen Group says that for its compilation, factors such as support for innovation by the authorities of the country and a particular city, the regulatory regime, the investment climate, the level of penetration of innovative technologies into the work of the city and the life of its population, the quality of technologies and their availability were analyzed.

In total, the company’s experts evaluated 131 cities of the world, of which 77 were included in the final rating. The analysis used data from the World Bank, the OECD, the United Nations and the Economist Intelligence Unit, as well as the results of a survey of 257 top managers of companies operating in industries such as high technology, investment consulting, banking and finance, professional services, analytics and research, trade and others

The first place in the Smart Centers Index 2023 was taken by London, which overtook last year’s leader New York. Third place was taken by another American metropolis – San Francisco.

The top 10 included Zurich and Lugano in Switzerland, as well as Singapore, Oxford, Los Angeles, Tel Aviv and Hong Kong. Indian Mumbai and New Delhi close the rating.

From the cities of the Eastern Europe-Central Asia region, the rating included: Sofia (43rd place), Tallinn (44th), Prague (48th), Astana (53rd), Istanbul (59th), Budapest (63rd), Moscow (67th), Warsaw (69) and Athens (70). Moscow has moved up one position since last year, placing it between Madrid and Mexico City in the overall ranking.

Since last year, the positions of Asian cities, still feeling the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, have weakened somewhat. At the same time, American and Western European cities have shown good dynamics in the development of the business climate, investment and regulatory environment for modern technologies.

Among the most promising technologies, respondents and experts named: the introduction of artificial intelligence into the daily work of cities, the fight against carbon emissions, cryptocurrencies and the improvement of the regulatory regime for safe work with them, quantum computers, the use of blockchain to ensure secure voting, technological risk insurance, etc.

“Our expectations from the adoption of technology can only be realized if we can use them correctly – this is the main challenge for commercial and financial centers (that is, large cities.— “b”),— emphasized Z/Yen Group Executive Chairman Prof. Michael Mainelli — We live in an exciting yet dangerous time, and more than ever, we need to work on improving technologies such as AI, new materials, decarbonization or quantum computers”.

Evgeniy Khvostik