Top Arab Cities 2010
By Trends • Jun 1st, 2010This year’s study of Top Arab Cities included 19 metropolitan areas. We reached the final ranking by calculating the average points achieved by the 19 cities based on their sub-rank order and the weight given to each of the sectors. On top of the list came the business and economy sectors, under which lie eight sub-indexes: the ease of doing business, transparency, economic freedom, competitiveness, cost of living, per capita income, economic inflation, and unemployment rate.
In calculating points for each city, we resorted to a number of reports and data such as the Doing Business 2010 report, which is released by the World Fund Organization and the World Bank, the Heritage Foundation, and the Mercer Human Resource Consulting index, which compares the cost of 200 goods and also compares items such as the cost of living, food, clothing, goods, telecommunications, and entertainment, in addition to Fact Book data from CIA (the Central Intelligence Agency).
In the business and economy sector, Doha ranked first, taking the lead in the transparency index (which Transparency International releases since 1995 and which investors rely upon when making investment decisions in a country).
The per capita income in Doha ranked first among the Arab cities, reaching $121,400. Doha also preceded other Arab countries in the competitiveness index (which was developed in 2004 by a Columbia University professor, Javier Slay Martin, for the World Economic Forum). It positioned 22nd worldwide. These are impressive results for a city that came in third overall.
Despite the rise of unemployment rates in the Arab world, which are considered the worst worldwide according to the Arab Labor Organization, Qatar scored the lowest rate among Arab countries, reaching 0.5 percent based on Fact Book, thus increasing its points in the business sector.
