POWERFUL CITIES

MOSCOW

The capital of Russia and indisputably one of the world’s most

financially powerful cities, Moscow is home to the highest amount

of the world’s billionaires and to Gazprom, the world’s largest

natural gas exporter.

SAN FRANCISCO

A major global financial city thanks in large part to the California Gold

Rush, San Francisco originally built itself up with finance and tourism.

Since the end of the 20th century, San Francisco has pushed into

medical research and technology, evidenced by its role as headquarter

of companies such as Facebook and Google.

WASHINGTON, D.C.

The third in a three-way tie for (with San Francisco and Moscow),

Washington, D.C. is politics first (but politics often means money) with

29% of jobs working for the federal government. On its own, the

D.C. metropolitan area is the fourth-largest metro economy in

the United States.

GENEVA

Famous for its watchmaking, Geneva comes onto our list, understandably

so due to Switzerland’s reputation as a banking centre. Geneva’s

private banks are home to over $1 trillion (that’s 1,000,000,000,000)

in assets.

SHANGHAI

Shanghai is the financial centre of mainland China. It should come as

no shock that Shanghai has experienced double-digit growth for

almost every one of the past 20 years, largely due to its port:

the busiest container port in the world.

BEIJING

Bearing a population of over 20 million people, Beijing has a powerful

economy which tripled from 2004 to 2012. After Moscow, New York

and Hong Kong, Beijing has the fourth highest amount of

resident billionaires.

OSLO

Home to many large oil and gas companies drilling in the nearby waters,

Oslo earned fDi magazine’s top spot in large European cities

with economic potential.

BOSTON

Boston has an impressive financial services sector, especially in

insurance and mutual funds (which locally-based Fidelity Investments

helped go mainstream in the 1980’s).

OSAKA-KOBE

The Osaka-Kobe metropolitan area boasts a $341 billion combined GDP.

Formerly the centre of Japanese commerce, the area is still home to

major companies such as Panasonic and Sharp.