By Reshma Kapadia
Perhaps not surprisingly, no emerging markets ranked in the top 50 of Mercer’s annual worldwide rankings for infrastructure (Well, Korea was No. 50–if you are in the camp that considers it an emerging market).
There were several that made it on the top 100 though, including Abu Dhabi, Johor Bahru, Malaysia, Buenos Aires and Shanghai (the highest ranking of China’s cities). An emerging market that has been increasingly getting more attention–Lagos–however landed near the bottom at 214 (of 221 companies).
Countries like Indonesia and Brazil have emphasized investments in infrastructure this year, but the highest ranking Brazilian city, Brasilia, only ranked No. 101 and Jakarta, the higheset ranking Indonesian firm, sits at No. 131. (Mumbai is at No. 134)
Mercer says the infrastructure rankings are based on electricity, water availability, telephone, mail, public transport, traffic congestion and airport effectiveness.
Clearly, there is still a lot of work to be done on the infrastructure front. The iShares S&P Emerging Markets Infrastructure Index Fund (EMIF) is up 15%.