<article><p>Hong Kong has logged its biggest fall in a global ranking of cities&#8217; ability to attract people, business and capital, due largely to COVID-19 headwinds and deteriorating economic freedoms.</p></article>

<p>Hong Kong has logged its biggest fall in a global ranking of cities&#8217; ability to attract people, business and capital, due largely to COVID-19 headwinds and deteriorating economic freedoms.</p>
<p>The Asian financial hub slipped to 23rd place in the latest Global Power City Index, down from 13th last year. The number of arrivals and departures at airports in Hong Kong has yet to recover to pre-pandemic levels, hurting the city&#8217;s score on accessibility. By contrast, the number of air travellers going through other hubs, such as New York and Chicago, has increased sharply from the previous year.</p>
<p>Hong Kong also lost points for its worsening economic freedom, leading to a drop in its ranking in the index&#8217;s economy subset. Hong Kong ranked fifth in the economy in 2021 but plummeted to 28th this year amid rising concerns over the strict zero-COVID policy and China&#8217;s growing political clout in the city.</p>
<p>The Global Power City Index is compiled by the Institute for Urban Strategies at Japan&#8217;s Mori Memorial Foundation. It uses 70 indicators in six areas — including the economy, livability and environment — to rank 48 cities around the world.</p>
<p>The top five cities remained unchanged. London led the way, followed by New York, Tokyo, Paris and Singapore.</p>
<p><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter wp-image-322387 size-full" src="https://dealstreetwebsite.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/2022/12/Nikkei-Hong-Kong.webp" alt="" width="769" height="568" srcset="https://dealstreetwebsite.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/2022/12/Nikkei-Hong-Kong.webp 769w, https://dealstreetwebsite.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/2022/12/Nikkei-Hong-Kong-300x222.webp 300w" sizes="(max-width: 769px) 100vw, 769px" /></p>
<p>However, the competition among the top cities is becoming more intense, Hiroo Ichikawa, executive director of the foundation and professor emeritus at Tokyo&#8217;s Meiji University, said at a news conference on Wednesday. &#8220;New York is rapidly catching up with London, while Paris is nearly overtaking Tokyo. At the same time, scores for Tokyo, London and Singapore dropped due to restrictions on the international movement of people,&#8221; Ichikawa said.</p>
<p>Seoul overtook Berlin to claim the seventh spot, up from eighth last year. Ichikawa said the slight rise is mainly due to an increase in scores for economic freedom and economic growth.</p>
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<p>Tokyo&#8217;s tumble was largely due to deteriorations in wages, variety of workplace options and number of air passengers.</p>
<p>Ichikawa said the Japanese capital was also unattractive in terms of nightlife options, availability of skilled human resources and its corporate tax rate, and scored worse than other top cities on social freedom and equality criteria. Applying effective measures to boost these scores will be key for Tokyo to improve its appeal, Ichikawa said.</p>
<div id="AdAsia"><em>This article first appeared in <a href="https://asia.nikkei.com/Economy/Hong-Kong-takes-biggest-ever-fall-in-global-Power-City-rankings">Nikkei Asia</a>.</em></div>
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HK down to 23 from 13th rank; SG and Tokyo remain in top 5. The index marks the ability of a city to attract people, business and capital.

Hong Kong falls a record 10 places in Global Power City Index

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Hong Kong falls a record 10 places in Global Power City Index

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