The most developed nations in the world – and their flagship cities – are well-known, but it is also well-known that the most advanced countries cannot grow as quickly as their less developed peers; those that have the opportunity to reproduce and “reuse” the technologies of their more advanced peers – whether gifted by foreign investment or “copied”. (This process can’t be considered “copyright infringement;” to argue that would be to argue that the West owed royalties to the Chinese for the use of gunpowder, or the Arabs for the use of numbers IMHO).
Within these nations are their cities, each growing at a different rate from their neighbors for a variety of reasons that this recently-released TestTube video will explore.
It lists down the five fastest growing cities in the world, as defined by the Brookings Institute; as a mix of GDP per capita and increased employment. It should be noted that there are other methods of determining the growth of cities, such as population growth.
5) Dubai of the United Arab Emirates
Dubai owes its fast growth not just to oil (which can be a double-edged sword, particularly when other nations have a stronger military), but also to its status as a global transit hub. It plans to expand its airport to accomodate 220 million passengers a year, more than twice that of the current world’s largest airport in Atlanta, Georgia. Its GDP per capita grows at 4.5% per year, and its employment rose by 4.7%, while the rest of the UAE has barely recovered from the last financial crisis. Of course, the presence of billionaire investors making their home there, tends to speed things along.
4) Bursa of Turkey
3) Istanbul of Turkey
2) Izmir of Turkey
The Turkish cities grow at about the same rate, about 2% GDP per capita, while employment is growing at a sterling 6%. According to TestTube, Turkey benefits from its location as a gateway to Europe, one which China is keen to invest in as part of its Silk Road 2.0.
1) Macau of China
Speak of the devil. There’d be a lot less flavor on this list (which is short as it is) if we were talking about the fastest growing cities in the world in terms of GDP or GDP per capita alone. (The top 20 list of fastest growing nations reveals that the top 10 fastest growing cities in terms of GDP growth, were all Chinese with GDP growth ranging from 6.6% to 9.5%. Employment growth gets a far greater weightage in the study.)
Anyway, TLDR Macau benefits by the gambling tourism of rich Chinese officials and tycoons.
Ironically, there is such a thing as bad publicity; things have changed since the study was published in February of last year. Macau’s growth has collapsed, due in large part to China’s anti-corruption drive.
Sources: Tech Insider
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