HK, S'pore top business locations worldwide

A recent survey of the world’s top 280 multinational corporations has named Hong Kong and Singapore as the top two business locations worldwide, gathering a total score of 68.2 percent and 67.5 percent respectively.

According to CB Richard Ellis’ (CBRE) recent survey, Hong Kong and Singapore are the most popular cities for international businesses, followed by Tokyo, London and Shanghai.

“Hong Kong is the key gateway city for accessing China and is the city set to benefit most from the gradual liberalisation of the Chinese financial services markets. The city holds a unique position from which international businesses can operate globally, due to its location, lack of foreign ownership restrictions, tri-lingual mix and international, highly-skilled workforce,” said Nick Axford, Head of Research for Asia Pacific at CBRE.

Petra Blazkova, Research Head CBRE (Singapore & Southeast Asia) said, “Singapore's ranking attests to the quality, quantity and competitive cost of Singapore's office space.”

Singapore is the top tier city for companies in the service and industrial goods sector, while financial service industries and media rank the country as one of its top five locations.

Meanwhile, Paris and New York took the 10th and 11th spot respectively.

“New York was the most popular business location in the Americas, but ranked only 11th globally, with 55.4 percent of companies located there. This in part reflects the expansive size of the United States, which offers international companies numerous choices of major cities from which to access its markets,” said in the report.

Axford said, “Location decisions are typically driven by corporate strategies designed to cut costs, access low-cost or skilled workers, and reach new markets.”

“As future global economic growth is expected to be fuelled by emerging markets, particularly in Asia, cities like Hong Kong, Singapore and other large Asian centres are being viewed as key business hubs for exploiting that anticipated growth.”

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