In the context of the growing number of urban cities, competition between cities has increased significantly over the last years. This year, the World Bank is investing in a Competitive Cities Knowledge Base (CCKB) initiative, which is a joint project between its departments working on Private Sector Development and Urban Development. The project includes in-depth case studies of economically successful cities across all continents.
Six of the most interesting cities for this work will be: Bucaramanga (Colombia), Patna (India), Bandung (Indonesia), Agadir (Morocco), Kigali (Rwanda) and Izmir (Turkey). Firstly, these cities are specifically interesting for this project because they serve as examples of economic success. They outperformed both their national and regional economies in income and job growth. Secondly, they demonstrate the use of pro-active strategies that resulted in improved competitiveness. Thirdly, these concern mostly medium-sized and secondary cities, which means they are more similar to the majority of clients' cities than global cities literature that focuses on large, primary cities. Finally, these cities are interesting because they present a diversity, since these cities are spread over different regions in the world.
Find here more information on this project.