KL Tops Dell's We Cities Index In Terms Of Cost

SINGAPORE, July 19 (Bernama) -- Kuala Lumpur (KL) ranked No. 1 in terms of Cost, a sub-category in the latest Dell Inc's Women Entrepreneur (WE) Cities Index released on Monday in the United States. Overall, KL ranked No. 41 in the Index which revealed how 50 top global cities are fostering high-potential women entrepreneurs (HPWE). KL is placed fifth in Markets sub category, sixth in Access and No. 8 in Talent. The city is also emerging as a ‘City to Watch’ in recognition of its enabling factors for business and society. Besides KL, 12 Asia-Pacific cities were covered in the research, namely Singapore, Jakarta, Beijing, Tokyo, Melbourne, Hong Kong, Bangalore, Delhi, Shanghai, Seoul, Sydney and Taipei. Singapore is the only Asian city that made it to the Top 10 or No. 8 overall. It ranked No. 5 in Culture sub-category, sixth in Enabling Environment, seventh in terms of Capital and No. 10 in Technology. Building on the 2016 WE Cities research, the Index ranks cities based on the impact of local policies, programmes and characteristics in addition to national laws and customs. The Index was revealed at the 8th annual Dell WE Network Summit held in San Francisco. “Cities in Asia Pacific and Japan (APJ) hold huge promise and opportunity for women entrepreneurs, with a number of cities in the region already realising success in terms of attracting and fostering high-potential women business owners,” said President, Dell EMC Commercial, APJ, Amit Midha in a statement Tuesday. “The challenges women entrepreneurs face are complex, but the success stories we see are testament to the scale of the opportunity available in APJ. Identifying these challenges and working to address these is an investment in our collective future,” said Midha. Building on the past five years of Dell research on HPWE, cities are ranked on five important characteristics: capital, technology, talent, culture and markets. The overall rating is based on 72 indicators; 45 of these, nearly two-thirds, have a gender-based component. Dell partnered with IHS Markit – a leading source of insight and analytics that shape today’s business landscape – to launch this first-of-its-kind, global research that will measure a city’s ability to attract and support HPWE. Dell, a part of Dell Technologies, provides customers of all sizes – including 98 per cent of Fortune 500 companies – with a broad, innovative portfolio from edge to core to cloud. -- BERNAMA