Auckland ranks sixth in best Apec cities, CEOs downbeat

Auckland has been ranked sixth in a survey of the best cities in the Asia Pacific region to live and do business.

The report by global business consultancy PwC is being released to delegates at the Apec CEO Summit starting in Manila today.

The survey, Building Better Cities, ranks 28 cities of the 21 Apec countries on five criteria: economics; connectivity; environmental sustainability; health and welfare; and cultural and social health.

The top city isn’t technically in the Asia Pacific region: Toronto is in the eastern part of Canada but another Canadian city, Vancouver, which is on the Pacific coast, is second.

Singapore and Tokyo are next.

The only US cities in the top 10 are all on the Pacific coast: Seattle (fifth) and Los Angeles (ninth). Eastern coast US cities such as New York, Atlanta and Houston are not mentioned.

The Korean capital of Seoul (seventh) heads off Melbourne (eighth) while Osaka in Japan completes the top 10.

PwC says its study gives city leaders a view of where they are now and it hopes to inspire cities within Apec to collaborate and seek advice to solve tenacious problems.

The study also looks at the cities’ influence outside their borders through three lenses: how they fare in basic city development; what differentiates them; and the hindrances they face to growth.

PwC local government director David Walker says Auckland is the top city in six out of 39 variables and within the top five cities in 13.

“Auckland places in the top seven cities in three out of five categories – culture and society, environmental sustainability and health and welfare – and within the top 15 cities in the remaining two – economics and connectivity,” he says.

CEOs downbeat about the future
Meanwhile, in a separate survey, PwC says 800 of the region’s chief executives believe prospects for business growth over the next 12 months are dimming fast.

PwC's fifth annual Apec CEO Survey, CEO confidence in Asia Pacific shaken but strong,” finds mid-year volatility in financial markets has taken its toll on CEO confidence with just 28% of business leaders are now “very confident” their organisation will see revenue growth over the next 12 months.

That’s down from 46% a year ago and it is the lowest level since PwC started tracking 12-month confidence for the region in 2012.

“Cyber security, exposure to natural disaster risks and regional geopolitical tensions are among the leading threats to business investment and growth,” the report says.

But confidence differs from country to country. In the Philippines, for example, 51% of business leaders are very confident of business growth during the next year.

This compares with 34% in the US and 20% in China.

The survey also finds some marked contrast in confidence levels by size of company with mid-sized companies less than half as confident – with only 15% very confident of revenue growth in the next 12 months – than both large and small companies.

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