Agility, knowledge economy key for Auckland as an emerging global city

James Rosenwax says Auckland should focus on agility and the knowledge economy as it continues to emerge as a dynamic global city.

Rosenwax leads Aecom’s Australia and New Zealand cities practice. He recently authored a report on using innovation to transform Australian cities.

He says Auckland is already on the radar for many of the world’s major companies.

The Economist Intelligence Unit rates Auckland as the world’s eighth most liveable city. Yet Rosenwax says being seventh on the Jones Lang LaSalle Investment Intensity Index is more important.

Attracting international investment

“The JLL index is a measure of a city’s ability to attract investment from global corporations”, he says.

Rosenwax say his company, Aecom, a global infrastructure and engineering design company, has identified Auckland as one of four incubator cities alongside Singapore, Melbourne and Brisbane.

Businesses like Aecom are interested in investing in Auckland partly because of the strength of the city's natural assets.

He says the clean, green New Zealand brand is important to the rest of the world and it doesn't take long for them to realise it is real: "You only have to look around Auckland to see it's a beautiful place".

Read the full story by Bill Bennett in the New Zealand Herald.