Benchmarking the Competitiveness of Australian Global Cities: Sydney and Melbourne in the Global Context

In this article, we construct an integrative model of urban competitiveness, which incorporates economic and non-economic dimensions, and combines determinants and indicators of a city's competitiveness. We apply this model to evaluating the competitiveness of Australian cities (Sydney and Melbourne), benchmarked against a group of counterpart global cities (New York, London, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Toronto, Frankfurt, Hong Kong, Singapore and Shanghai). The results reveal the global status of the Australian cities, and point out their competitive strength in the dimensions of Liveability and Attractiveness, Creativity and Diversity, and Environmental Sustainability, and competitive weakness in the dimensions of Governance, Connectivity and Enterprise Hub. We conclude with a discussion about enhancing the competitiveness of Australian global cities.