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New Urban Economic Geography of Secondary Cities 79Other secondary cities have begun to developInformation Technology Communication (ITC) andservice industries. Bangalore and Hyderabad in Indiahave developed into major ITC service centres, ashave Casablanca and Fez in Morocco. The influence ofthe global economy extends well beyond the administrativeboundaries of these secondary cities. Manysupply chains supporting industries in these secondarycities are being forced to modernize and introducequality controls to comply with internationalstandards. This is particularly the case with emerginginternational tourism industries in secondary citiesand towns in Tanzania, Nepal and Thailand.Lagging CitiesThese are secondary cities with a well-developed industry base, some export industries,steady economic and population growth in line with, or slightly above, the nationaleconomy, average social indicators such as levels of poverty and Gini Coefficients (GC),and relatively stable employment growth in line with the national economy. Manysecondary cities in countries such as Brazil, China, India, Japan, Mexico, USA andGermany fall into this category.Abdjan, Nigeria, anexample of a laggingsecondary city.© Dickson Ajayi (2014)Laggard CitiesLaggard cities fall into two types: those where population is declining and those withrapidly expanding populations. Both have significant socioeconomic problems. Mostsecondary cities in Europe and Japan fall into the former category. Secondary citiesin the latter category are located in Africa, many parts of Asia, the Pacific and LatinAmerican regions. Many are subnational government administration centres or primary-industrytrading cities with small, more localized economies and markets. Mosthave high levels of informal-sector employment and a weak local government tax base.Many are held back by high levels of urban poverty and informal settlement. Theirdevelopment potential has been curtailed by weak national policies on decentralization,devolution, reform of local governments and civic entrepreneurship. Many rely entirelyon central-government grant funds and have been reluctant to engage in governancereforms, build essential strategic infrastructure and competencies to support localeconomic development.The export-orientated economic development model is not working for laggardcities. Therefore, a paradigm shift to a new hybrid economic development model isneeded if these lagging cities are ever to have any chance of catching up and of bridgingthe development gap between them and national primate cities.