Big cities like Beijing, Shanghai and Mumbai from such fast developing emerging markets like China and India will join the world rich city list by 2020, according to Pricewaterhouse Coopers prediction on Wednesday.

 

The report predicts that by 2020 there will be five mega cities with populations in excess of 20 million: Mumbai, Mexico City, Sao Paulo, New York and Tokyo, which will contain more than 35 million people.

 

PwC said the world's mega cities are comparable in size to fully fledged national economies. Tokyo and New York currently both have GDPs in excess of US$1.1 trillion -- making them as big as Canada and Spain, the EU's fifth biggest economy.

 

The prediction said that the capitals of "old Europe" such as Vienna, Rome and Berlin, are likely to slide down the GDP rankings, but will benefit from revenues from tourists from cities in the emerging economies.

 

The richest city in the world by per capita income adjusted for variations in the cost of living around the world is San Francisco-Oakland at US$71,400.

 

The next 10 wealthiest cities by average income are all American, with London the first non-US city on the list in 12th place. London currently has a GDP per capita of US$53,200.

 

Although London is expected to grow briskly over the next decade and a half, its rate of expansion is expected to be only half as fast as that in Shanghai (6.5 percent) or Mumbai (6 percent).

 

Outside London, PwC says Birmingham, 71st in the PwC list of the world's 100 biggest cities, is expected to drop to 79th, while Manchester is projected to fall from 73rd to 82nd.

 

John Hawks worth, head of macroeconomics at PwC, said: "Within the developed world, it seems likely that the most successful cities of the future will be those that have comparative advantages in intangible businesses, financial and consumer services that are not so easily emulated by the rising stars of China, India or Brazil."

 

(Xinhua News Agency March 8, 2007)