global cities - is cairo a global city? - economic...

Economic Geography

Global Cities - Is Cairo a global city?

ةرهاقلا

05/20/2008Renate [email protected]

Economic Geography

1. Cairo – Location, population, urbanization, problems, citizen’s satisfaction

1. Global City – Definition and Criteria

1. Cairo – A global city?

1. Bidding for ‘global city’ status

1. Conclusion

1. References

Outline

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Economic GeographyCairo - Location

Cairo is located on the banks and islands of the Nile River in the north of Egypt.

The oldest part of the city is east of the river. This part of the city has grown up randomly over the centuries and it is filled with small lanes, crowded tenements and hundreds of ancient mosques that act as landmarks.

Since the mid-19th century the city gradually spreads west, towards the agricultural lands next to the Nile. These western areas, built on the model of Paris by Ismail the Magnificent, are marked by wide boulevards, public gardens, and open spaces.Western Cairo is dominated by the government buildings and modern architecture.

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Population: 15.750 million people in the metropolitan area

Population density: 35.047/km² in the city10.150/km² in the metropolitan area

Cairo is the 10th most populous metropolitan area in the world and the most populous metropolitan area in Africa.

Economic GeographyCairo - Population

Reasons for the population growth in Cairo (according to the World Bank):

The overall natural growth rate during the last decade of the 20th century: 2.3% annually.The improvement in the health care leading to the increase of the life expectancy at birth.The accelerating migration from rural areas to cities. In addition, some of the population growth has resulted from the influx of refugees from the cities along the Suez Canal that was damaged in the wars of the late 1960’s and the early 1970’s.

Source: http://www.isl.uni-karlsruhe.de/vrl/ResEng/global_trends/cairo/index.htm

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Economic Geography

Source: http://www.demographia.com/db-worldua.pdf

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Cairo - Population

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Economic GeographyCairo – Urbanization

Urbanization has been very rapid.

The increase in the urban area was not as fast as the population increase.

Within the last three decades, the total built-up areaincreased more than 270%

Source: http://siteresources.worldbank.org/INTHOUSINGLAND/Resources/339552-1180637750307/Cairo.pdf

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20001980197019501900

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Def.: Districts built on the outskirts or inside the urban agglomeration of the city in violation of laws. This violation includes building on agricultural lands which is prohibited in Egypt or building on a public land. In both cases, building takes place without permissions and without considering planning standards.

Informal settlement1

Source: http://siteresources.worldbank.org/INTHOUSINGLAND/Resources/339552-1180637750307/Cairo.pdf 7


Informal settlement1

The City of the deadDue to the lack of satisfactory and affordable housing for the rapidly growing population many poor Egyptians were forced to live in houses amongst cemeteries called „The City of the dead.“ Among these cemeteries live a community of Egypt’s urban poor, forming an illegal but tolerated, separate society. More than five million Egyptians live in these cemeteries, and have formed their own enterprises.

Source: www.learnquebec.ca/en/content/curriculum/social_sciences/sec_geography/resources/metropolises/cairo.html

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Decentralization has been promoted by government efforts to stimulate economic development, to reduce population density and traffic congestion in Cairo and to stem the growth of slum areas. The new towns are on or beyond the edge of the urbanization and were intended to become self-sufficient and attract employment. The government provides the roads and other infrastructure.Large manufacturing plants, warehouses and offices were built in the new cities, which would have been much more costly and even impossible to develop inside older Cairo.In addition to new towns, the government has developed an information technology city (“Smart Village”).


1Satellite cities

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Economic GeographyCairo – Problems

Environmental problems

Source: http://www.ppionline.org/ppi_ci.cfm?knlgAreaID=108&subsecID=900003&contentID=254017

1Extensive water systems have allowed the city to expand east into the desert Poor passenger transport system: only 4 km of metro/1 million inhabitants(Paris: 150 km/1 million inhabitants) ‏Serious traffic congestions: 80% of intersections in centre Cairo and Giza are saturated

Infrastructure

Cairo has some of the most polluted air in the world: the air quality is incredibly poor

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Economic GeographyCairo – Citizen‘s satisfaction

Citizen’s satisfaction by selected services


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Economic GeographyGlobal Cities – Definition and Criteria

Def.: Global cities function as regional or global nodes in the world economy. These cities concentrate command functions and are key locations for finance and specialized services for firms (Sassen).

Criteria and indicators

Source: Izak J. van der Merwe (2004): The global cities of Sub-Sahara Africa: Fact or fiction. Urban Forum 15: p. 36-47

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Global Cities

Present studies of globalization and global cities have been biased towards western core countriesAfrica is by far the continent with the fewest global cities or world cities in any of the classifications.This situation stems from the distinctive urban traditions and the urban imprints of the strong colonial heritage: In the 20th century Africa’s role in the world economy was mostly to supply raw materials and import consumer goods.

It is questionable whether the global city criteria apply to non first world countries.12

Economic GeographyCairo – A global city ?

Source: J Gugler (2004): World Cities beyond the West: Globalization, Development, and Inequality. Cambridge University Press: p. 1-26

8 International flights to destinations in Africa. 9 International flights to destinations in the Middle East.

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ABU = Abu Dhabi; BEI = Beirut; CAS = Casablanca; CAI = Cairo; DUB = Dubai; IST = Istanbul; JED = Jeddah;KUW = Kuwait City; MAN = Manama; NIC = Nicosia; RIY = Riyadh; TEL = Tel Aviv.

Global network connectivity of West Asian/North African Cities

Relatively low connectivity does not mean being unconnected

Notable inter-city relations between West Asian/ North African Cities

Some cities act as ‘gateway cities’ with no global command functions but with relatively high connectivity and some notable ‘network power’

Source: Taylor, P.J. (2001): West Asian/North African Cities in the World City Network. The Arab World Geographer 4 (3). p. 146-159

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Spatial Economy of CairoCairo is a primate city

Source of 43% of the public sector employment and 40% of industrial private sector employment

Accounts for over 50% of national GDP and 40% of manufacturing outputs

Source: http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/34/61/36739719.pdf

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Source: http://www.citymayors.com/statistics/richest-cities-2005.html (report by PricewaterhouseCoopers 2007)‏

Economic output of the largest cities and urban areas in 2005

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GDP per capita in US $63.00061.000

59.400

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City Development Index (CDI) ‏

The CDI is the best single measure of the level of development in cities (developed by UNCHS) ‏

The CDI …… is defined at the city level and could also

be taken as a measure of average well-being and access to urban facilities by individuals.

… has been cited as a good index of urban poverty and urban governance. Health, education, and infrastructure components are particularly good variables for measuring poverty outcomes in cities. Similarly infrastructure, waste and city product components are key variables for measuring the effectiveness of governance in cities.

… correlates strongly with the city product: other things being similar, a high-income city will have a higher CDI.

Cairo scored 63.4 (extrapolated figure, since data was not available)‏

Source: http://ww2.unhabitat.org/Istanbul+5/116.pdf

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The World Bank Group – Doing Business

Doing Business in Egypt 2008 measures the ways in which government regulations enhance business activity or restrain it at the sub national level. The data set covers 178 economies: 46 in Sub-Saharan Africa, 31 in Latin America and the Caribbean,28 in Eastern Europe and Central Asia, 24 in East Asia and Pacific, 17 in the Middle East and North Africaand 8 in South Asia-as well as 24 OECD high-income economies as benchmarks. This report allows a comparison of the economies not only with one another but also with the “best practice”economy for each indicator.

Source:http://www.doingbusiness.org/documents/FullReport/2008/DB08_Full_Report.pdf

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Economic GeographyBidding for `global city` status

Cairo has not yet qualified for ‘global city’ status due to:the lack of a strategic visionthe paucity of financial resourcesa limited institutional capacity at the local government level

Cairo has been eclipsed by cities like Dubai and Johannesburg, where sound strategic planning has laid the foundation for “up and coming” global cities.

Cairo has failed to attract major organizations and financial institutions to locate there.Financial resources of Cairo’s local government (CLG) are stretched to the limit. The CLG is unable to deliver high quality public services and infrastructure unless it provides an enabling framework, which would attract FDI, multi-national regional headquarters, and world events to the city so as to maximize its local revenue base.

The tragic events of 9/11 have cast a cloud of uncertainty over EgyptForeign Direct Investment (FDI) fell by 25% (Stock Exchange, devalued Pound) ‏Tourist inflows were hit hard almost every sector of the city economy is suffering a recession

With the exception of representative offices of all the UN organizations/programs, the World Bank, the International Monetary Found, and the Universal Postal Union, the list of Cairo based international organizations and institutions is far from impressive.

Bidding for ‘global city‘ status: a prescription for sustaining Cairo‘s financial health

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Economic GeographyBidding for ‘global city’ status

Strengths

SWOT analysis of Cairo:

Internal political stability, which is a necessary condition for a thriving business environmentFree Trade Agreements (FTA) with a couple of Arab StatesHuman capital: research scientists, reasonable pool of multi-lingual professionals, graduates from the business and economics department of AUCRemarkable development of the city’s information and communications technology infrastructure

Weakness:Egypt’s lingering bureaucracyLow level of coordination and synchronization among different government agencies and between government agencies and private businessThe weak CLG financial base and institutional capacity (weak governance) ‏Slow litigation process

Opportunities:FTAs hold the potential for transforming Cairo into a nexus for trade between the US, Europe, the Arab World and AfricaCairo is a serious contender in the race for the communications and information technology (CIT) hub of the Middle East and Africa (growing rate > 17% p.a) ‏Enormous proven natural gas reserves of Egypt bode well for the energy sectorThe opening up of the insurance sector holds a lot of promise for new multinational business

Threats:Regional political instability has historically scared off investors and will continue to do so unless the Middle East conflict is fairly resolved soonEnvironmental pollution and low liveability standards in the city centre

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Economic GeographyConclusion

It remains questionable whether global city criteria apply to cities in non first world countries like Cairo.

Applying the commonly used global city criteria shows that Cairo hasn‘t reached ‘global city‘status yet, but has the potential.

Cairo is equally well connected with Africa and the Middle East. But it’s opportunities have been severely limited by political conflicts in the Middle East that culminated in a series of wars.

Duties and responsibilities to be done in order to reach global city status:Importance of strategic vision: Creation of enabling conditions that will serve the forces of globalization and that help Cairo to succeed in the competition for global capital:

excellent communicationswell-functioning infrastructure and urban servicesskilled labour forceefficient transportation systemsavailability of affordable housing access to educational and recreational facilities

Good urban governance:Strengthening institutional capacity and devolving resource mobilization powers from the central to the local level of government.Marketing the city’s assets, i.e. through public and private partnerships.

Conclusion

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Economic GeographyReferences

• El-Khishin, K. (2003): Bidding for ‘global city’ status: a prescription for sustaining Cairo’s financial health. Cities 20(2): p. 129-134

• Gugler, J. (2004): World Cities beyond the West: Globalization, Development, and Inequality. Cambridge University Press: p. 1-26

• Van der Merwe, I.J. (2004): The global cities of Sub-Sahara Africa: Fact or fiction. Urban Forum 15: p. 36-47

• Taylor, P.J. (2001): West Asian/North African Cities in the World City Network: A Global Analysis of Dependence, Integration and Autonomy. The Arab World Geographer 4 (3). p. 146-159

• El Kouedi, H. (2007): Tackling the shelter challenge of cities,- Cairo, Egypt. World Bank 04/30/2007http://siteresources.worldbank.org/INTHOUSINGLAND/Resources/339552-1180637750307/Cairo.pdf

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• Demographia World Urban Areas (2007):http://www.demographia.com/db-worldua.pdf

• Cairo: Megacity - Mega Problems: http://www.isl.uni-karlsruhe.de/vrl/ResEng/global_trends/cairo/index.htm

• Progressive Policy Institute:http://www.ppionline.org/ppi_ci.cfm?knlgAreaID=108&subsecID=900003&contentID=254017

• African Economic Outlook 2005-2006:http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/34/61/36739719.pdf

• City Mayors Statistics: http://www.citymayors.com/statistics/richest-cities-2005.html (report by PricewaterhouseCoopers 2007)‏

• Doing Business 2008:http://www.doingbusiness.org/documents/FullReport/2008/DB08_Full_Report.pdf

• The City Development Index (CDI):http://ww2.unhabitat.org/Istanbul+5/116.pdf

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