Manila is Asia’s 38th 'most innovative' city

MANILA, Philippines— The City of Manila placed 38th in this year’s index of most innovative cities in Asia, according to data innovation agency 2ThinkNow.

Last year, Manila only ranked 48th in the roster of 108 Asian countries.

The nation’s capital likewise improved its ranking globally and jumped 48 spots to 239th place from its 278th rank in 2018.

2ThinkNow makes city rankings of 500 cities globally and ranks their innovation in terms of usage of smart technology and support for start-ups.

According to reports, the index looked at more than 100 indicators including transport, infrastructure, citizen privacy, green architecture, property prices, startup office spaces and internet users.

“Our index is designed to measure innovation conditions, and often predicts rising cities before other rankings,” Christopher Hire, director of 2ThinkNow said.

Meanwhile, 2ThinkNow also classified the Philippine capital as a “node” city, which means that it has “a strong performance across many innovation segments, with key imbalances or issues.”

New York City emerged as this year’s most innovative city in the world, dethroning last year’s top two winners, Tokyo and London, which took the second and third spots in this year's Innovation Cities Index. —Rosette Adel