Dubai ranked among top 25 global cities for third year in a row

Dubai continues to hold its top spot in the MENA region, according to Kearney's Global Cities Index (GCI), ranking 23rd globally and claiming a spot in the top 25 for the third consecutive year.

The report highlights the significant strides made by emerging city hubs worldwide, especially in the Middle East.

These cities are witnessing remarkable improvements in their global city performances due to evolving globalisation and a new distributed geography of opportunity is emerging.

Abu Dhabi, for instance, climbed 10 spots on the global rankings as it strengthened its position as a leading international hub.

The GCI measures the capacity of a city to draw in, maintain, and produce global streams of capital, individuals, and ideas. The evaluation is based on five essential factors - Human Capital, Information Exchange, Cultural Experience, Political Engagement and Business Activity.

Despite a few years of decreasing GCI scores, the average has stabilised, with cities in the Middle East and Africa seeing significant growth. Gulf nation capitals, notably Riyadh, Muscat and Doha, have notably advanced in their overall rankings by nine, eight and seven places respectively.