Bold Project to Improve Liveability of Global Cities
29 July 2010
"As a global institute of excellence at NUS, we want to do research that not only has impact, but global impact. Global impact to global citizens. We want to do research of global impact that applies not just to a small privileged minority but to the majority of stakeholders, especially ordinary people, expressing and advancing their interest and position."
Assoc Prof Tan Khee Giap, Global Policy Research Unit of the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, NUS. Prof Tan is also Chair of the Singapore National Committee for Pacific Economic Cooperation.
RANKING OF GLOBAL LIVEABLE CITIES: Heading the study is Assoc Prof Tan Khee Giap, Global Policy Research Unit of the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, NUS
Liveable cities indices, like many other types of indices, are powerful instruments for gauging standing and spurring improvement in areas of lack. To be effective, a global liveability study should be based on helpful indicators that reflect what an ideal liveable city should be characterised by and show how cities in different parts of the world can progress to become more liveable.
The Global Liveable Cities Index (GLCI), developed in a study commissioned by the Centre for Liveable Cities (CLC), has precisely these advantages. Using a wider range of indicators, it is more comprehensive and balanced than other existing frameworks. The indicators pertain to five equally important categories: economic vibrancy and competitiveness, environmental friendliness and sustainability, domestic security and stability, quality of life and diversity, and good governance and effective leadership.
For a start, the team of four expert researchers who developed the GLCI selected, evaluated and ranked 64 global cities and 35 Asian cities. But ranking was not the ultimate purpose of the exercise. Their interest was to benefit especially the ordinary stakeholder in emerging cities. Hence their methodology included "what-if" simulations highlighting potentially better results that could be achieved if improvements were made in certain weaker areas.
They also reported only the position of the top 35 global cities and the top 20 Asian cities. "This shows that our objective is not just a pure beauty contest, but to be constructive, to help those who are not ranked among the top, especially the emerging cities. Hopefully these cities would come to us - to the CLC, to the Global Policy Research Unit (GPRU) of the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy (LKY School) - which quite a number of cities and ministers on behalf of cities have done. They want to know how their cities can improve, and we would work with them," said Assoc Prof Tan Khee Giap who heads the GLCI study.
Each of the four researchers in the team brings to the project a wealth of experience and expertise. Both Assoc Prof Tan and his co-author Assoc Prof Chen Kang, founders of the NUS LKY School's GPRU, are well-known for their knowledge of the Chinese economy. Their Asian expertise complemented the understanding of Europe and North America of their other two collaborators: ETH Zurich Prof Renate Schubert, a prominent environmentalist; and University of Fribourg Prof Hans Wolfgang Brachinger, an expert statistician. Renowned economist Prof Wing Thye Woo, who holds concurrent portfolios in Brookings Institution, University of California and Columbia University, is a discussant to this study.
In the next phase of the study, the research team hopes to enhance the relevance and accuracy of the GLCI by including more cities, gathering more data and working more closely with partnering institutions and cities, as well as acquire adequate funding to enable these endeavours. The final report is targeted for release at the World Cities Summit 2012.