Moscow became the leader of the rating by accessibility of services among 10 world megacities

Moscow topped the rating “Availability of services in the world's cities”, surpassing such major megacities as New York, London, Berlin and Singapore. The rating was compiled by researchers of the consulting company CNP and experts in the field of urbanism based on the assessment of ten megacities of countries that are among the largest economies in the world.

The cities were evaluated by territorial and financial accessibility of 25 types of services for the population related to 11 main spheres of urban life, necessary to ensure comfortable living in megacities. Moscow ranked first in the availability of medical, housing and communal services and communication services, such as cellular communication and Internet, and was also among the three leaders in the availability of transportation, education, sports, culture and entertainment services. Moscow ranked first in the final consolidated rating.

“International ratings are an important tool that allows the Moscow City Government, business and citizens to understand how the city is developing in comparison with other major megacities of the world. The change of approaches to the assessment of Russian cities by the authors of many major foreign ratings has made it impossible to make such an objective comparison. It is important for us to see new ratings, which are based on open data using transparent methodology and do not depend on external conjuncture”, - said Maria Bagreeva, Deputy Mayor of Moscow and Head of the Moscow Department of Economic Policy and Development. 

The service sector as a whole is the backbone of the capital's economy: it accounts for about 85% of the city's economy.

“Continuous improvement of the quality and accessibility of services is one of the priorities of the Moscow City Government. Much attention is paid to the development of the sector of services for the population - both state and municipal, and the commercial sector. For ten months of the current year, the turnover of Moscow companies and organizations providing paid services to the population exceeded 3.3 trillion rubles. Compared to the same period last year, this indicator increased in comparable prices by more than 9%. In total, Moscow accounts for almost a quarter of the volume of this sector in the country”, - added the Deputy Mayor. 

Active development of the city's territories, construction of new social, sports and cultural infrastructure, creation and reconstruction of public spaces, implementation of urban planning projects aimed at the development of the service sector in residential areas of the city contribute to increased accessibility of services. An important role is played by the construction of road and transport infrastructure, the development of metro and Moscow Central Diameters, the launch of new routes of land and river public transport, car, bike and scooter rental services, recalled Maria Bagreeva.

Simultaneously with the rating of accessibility of services, a study of the work of city authorities to ensure accessibility of services for the least socially protected categories of the population and analysis of the transformation of the service industry of cities under the influence of global trends were presented. Among the innovative practices of service sector development, the researchers noted the capital's service of free recycling of household appliances and large garbage and the inclusion of services of non-state educational projects in the city system of distance education.

The study and its methodology were highly appreciated by experts from Lomonosov Moscow State University. In the future, the authors of the study plan to expand the sample and include other major cities of the world in the study. The full version of the study can be downloaded on the project website.

Earlier, the Mayor of Moscow Sergey Sobyanin said that in the capital 100% of important social services have been transferred to electronic form and are available at any time.