Cebu City falls to 15th spot in 2020 Tholons ranking

CCTO: RANKING. The graphic shows the Top 25 Super Cities according to the 2020 Tholons Services Globalization City Index. / FROM THOLONS

By: KATLENE O. CACHO - Sunstar Cebu
Published: September 4, 2020
Full Article: Cebu City falls to 15th spot in 2020 Tholons ranking
Snippets: FROM its 12th ranking in 2019, Cebu City fell to the 15th spot in the 2020 Tholons Services Globalization Index (TSGI).

Released in July, this year’s Tholons report placed higher emphasis on digital innovation attributes and assessment of how the various cities and countries have managed and are winning over the global crisis during the pandemic.

According to Tholons managing director Avinash Vashistha, these new criteria resulted in five new high-cost cities from the west surpassing Cebu City’s ranking. These five new western cities ahead of Cebu City are San Francisco, London, New York, Sydney and Vancouver.

“This year we changed the assessment and put a significant emphasis on digital. So there is a greater emphasis on artificial intelligence (AI), intelligent automation and innovation. ... We know you were ranked 12 and now 15. However, seven of the cities (Delhi, Hyderabad, Krakow, Poland, Chennai, Montevideo, Santiago) that were in the Top 15 have now dropped below 15. Cebu has only dropped by three, which means the city has a net improvement based on the last year’s list. This is going to become even tougher as more and more western cities who are leading in innovation even though they are more expensive will continue to be a larger part of the cloud-based services industry,” said Vashistha, in his email to Cebu IT-BPM (information technology-business process management) Organization (Cib.O) former managing director Wilfredo Sa-a, Jr.

Manila also suffered a setback this year from ranking second in last year’s list to fourth this year. India’s Bangalore though has maintained its rank as the top super city in the Tholons list.

Moroever, the Philippines as country sustained its fifth spot in the Top 50 Digital Nations ranking, after the UK (4th), Brazil (3rd), the US (2nd) and India (1st).

The TSGI, which is published annually, ranks the Top 100 “Super Cities” and Top 50 “Digital Nations.” The index evaluates ranks and provides location strategies to multinational corporations, countries, governments, multi-lateral agencies, analysts and investors.