Asia-Pacific cities ‘most confident’ about transformation in survey for Telstra
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Asia-Pacific cities ‘most confident’ about transformation in survey for Telstra

Bangalore comes top and cities in the Asia-Pacific region are more confident than others around the world about digital transformation, according to a survey for Telstra.

However there were some surprises. Seoul in South Korea is near the bottom in a ranking of 45 cities in the survey, prepared for Telstra by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU). Stockholm in Sweden was also low down, says the report.

“The environment in which a business operates has a direct impact on whether it can successfully transform. Overall, 48% of executives surveyed said their firm had considered relocating their operations to a city with a more favourable external environment,” said Tom Homer, Telstra’s managing director for EMEA.

“This is something governments need to be mindful of as European cities actively compete for business, technology talent and funding,” he added.

“The survey has told us that Asia-Pacific cities have the highest level of confidence, but London came out high in terms of its financial environment,” he told Capacity in an interview.

On the whole cities in developing countries were more confident than those in developed countries, he added. “Seven out of the 10 most confident are in Asia, some of them in India.”

He noted: “Half of organisations told us they would consider moving” if infrastructure and services were inadequate. The EIU took infrastructure, skills and the financial environment into account. “It’s a barometer of how well the 45 cities are doing.” Berlin came bottom of the 45 for the overall environment, as well as for innovation and entrepreneurship.

The Digital Cities Barometer, which is published today in the EIU’s Connecting Commerce report, is based on a survey of 2,620 executives in 45 cities conducted in June and July 2017. The list of cities includes 23 in Asia-Pacific, 19 in EMEA and three in North America.

Executives worked in professional services, financial services, manufacturing, retail and education. No respondents were included from the telecommunications or technology sectors.

Cities apart from Berlin that scored badly were New York, San Francisco and Singapore, “where people said the infrastructure was not good enough and was holding back digital transformation”, said Homer. “Entrepreneurial spirit carries digital transformation on in cities like London and Bangalore.” London came ninth in the overall list of 45, followed by Madrid.

The full list of cities covered is: Adelaide, Amsterdam, Antwerp, Bangalore, Bangkok, Barcelona, Beijing, Berlin, Birmingham, Brussels, Brisbane, Chicago, Copenhagen, Frankfurt, Dubai, Guangzhou, Hong Kong, Jakarta, Johannesburg, Kuala Lumpur, London, Madrid, Manila, Marseille, Milan, Melbourne, Mumbai, New Delhi, New York, Osaka, Oslo, Paris, Rome, Perth, San Francisco, Rotterdam, Shanghai, Seoul, Shenzhen, Singapore, Stockholm, Sydney, Tokyo, Taipei and Yokohama.




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