SCI 11 Results

• San Francisco and Zurich took first and second places in the index, overtaking London.
• Five Western European centres feature in the top 10, alongside three US centres.
• Singapore and Tel Aviv also feature in the top 10.
• Eight centres rose 10 or more places in the ranking in SCI 11, while five centres fell 10 or more places.
• The average rating in SCI 11 rose by 0.63% following a fall of 1.07% in SCI 10. The biggest increase in average ratings of 2.49% was in Latin America & The Caribbean, while the average rating for Asia/Pacific fell 0.02%.
• Confidence appears not to be strongly affected by the impact of current geopolitical tensions, and trade disruption, and we will continue to track these effects.
• Assessments in the SCI survey appear to favour centres with strong people skills, including both the leading centres and Oxford and Cambridge, which form a ‘golden triangle’ with London in the UK.

We asked respondents to the SCI survey to identify the areas of technology which are likely to have the most impact on industry over the next five years. Almost a quarter of respondents identified ‘Artificial Intelligence, Digital And Computing’ as likely to have the greatest impact, with ‘Energy And Environmental Technology’, and ‘Robotics’ mentioned by 17% and 15% of respondents respectively.

The top 20 centres in SCI 11 are shown in the table below:

Full details of SCI 11 can be found at www.smartcentresindex.net.

Professor Michael Mainelli, Chairman of Z/Yen, said:

“With heightened global tensions and rivalries, tech spending is spread across a broad front - from saving lives to defence to the environment. Z/Yen expects yet more volatility among Smart Centre ratings as perturbations change which technologies are favoured and which centres are best placed to develop them.”

We invite all those with an interest in the development of innovation and technology centres to take part in SCI 12 by rating the financial and commercial centres you know on our continuously running survey – www.smartcentresindex.net/survey/.

ENDS

Notes For Editors

About SCI 11

The SCI is a factor assessment index, combining a number of instrumental factors - data measures drawn from a range of data providers across the world - and assessments given by business and finance professionals of three dimensions related to innovation and technology in major commercial and financial centres:

· Innovation Support - the approach taken to regulation and support for the innovation and technology industry provided by the commercial ecosystem.

· Creative Intensity - the extent to which technology and innovative industries are embedded in the economy of the centre.

· Delivery Capability - the quality of the work being undertaken in the field in the centre.

These dimensions are brought together in the overall SCI ratings to produce the index, which is updated every six months. SCI 11 was compiled using 135 instrumental factors. These quantitative measures are provided by third parties including the World Bank, the OECD, and the United Nations. The instrumental factors were combined with 1,772 assessments provided by 296 respondents to the SCI online questionnaire.

To find out more about sponsorship opportunities, joining the Vantage Financial Centres network, further research, and bespoke reports on individual financial centres, please contact us.

Previous Editions

Previous editions of the SCI can be accessed at https://www.longfinance.net/programmes/financial-centre-futures/smart-centres-index/publications/

Z/Yen & Long Finance

Z/Yen is the City of London's leading commercial think-tank. It was founded in 1994 to promote societal advance through better finance and technology (www.zyen.com). The SCI is part of Z/Yen’s research into economic centres alongside the Global Financial Centres Index and the Global Green Finance Index.

For more information please email Mike Wardle at mike_wardle@zyen.com or phone on +44 (0) 7880 737319.