In my job as shadow business secretary, I have travelled to some of the fastest-growing regions of the world to build trade links and learn policy lessons. One thing in particular has become evident to me on my travels: cities and regions are leading the way in driving growth and raising living standards. Lagos, with its film studios and chemical firms, has become the business and cultural hub of West Africa. Shanghai, like some huge vacuum cleaner, sucks international investment into China. Tel Aviv’s IT firms are churning out computer programs used in businesses the world over. Over Easter I was in the United States where Martin O’Malley, the former Mayor of Baltimore and current Governor of Maryland, has led the way taking his state to the top of the league tables in research and development. All three areas have known their fair share of adversity, particularly during the 1970s and 1980s (just like my home town of London), but have been beating back their problems by finding smart new ways of paying their way in the world.
Around the world, cities in particular are on the march. As Edward Glaeser at Harvard University argues: “Despite the technological breakthroughs that have caused the death of distance, it turns out that the world isn’t flat; it’s paved. The city has triumphed.” Cities, he writes, “have survived the tumultuous end of the industrial age and are now wealthier, healthier and more alluring than ever.”
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