Main challenges of globalization of irans cities and business

Main Challenges of Globalization of Iran's Cities and Business Iman Farahbakhsh University of Applied Science and Technology, Iran Abstract This paper consists of two sections: First section deals with description of an index of globalization and globalization process of cities, strategies, and also the experience of some of the countries particularly China, India, and small European cities in globalization process The second part describes the globalization trend of Iran specially after Islamic revolution (1979) and evidences of legislation and establishment of free zones (20 zones), then It determines Iran's situation in globalization process in economical, social and political aspects by the result of usage of Kof and A.T Kearney indexes The results of this section indicate not so much good situation of Iran in globalization process based on above-mentioned indexes (the lowest position among 62 countries) and it was completely specified that cities are sub-system of countries The more any country integrate in global community, the quickly the cities of that country can move towards globalization The results of this research show this reality that in recent decades Iran has been capitalthropic instead of capital augmenting The efforts for creating free economic zones to connect Iran to globalization process not only started with delay but due to structural problems have not been so successful as well Also Iran cities face with serious challenges such as extensive control on different economical, social, informational, cultural sections and lack of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in globalization process Keywords: Globalization, Problems, Approaches, Cities, Iran History of globalization The review of philosopher's ideas from ancient time until today shows that there has been constant dispute between the advocates of political and universal theory and those who demand to establish a nation-state and a kind of defense wall against the influence of other nations and tribes Any way this matter has taken into consideration by word of divine religions to the speech of the great philosophers like Marcos, poets like Homer, Ferdowsi Sadi, Tagor, Eghbal and politicians like Jawaharlal Nehro etc (Mohammadi et.al, 2007, 1) Nevertheless the history of practical movement related to globalization returns to activities about establishment of free economic zones For the first time the free zone as a new concept was established in Hamburg port in Germany in 1888 Then before World War II, this process developed in other countries such as Finland, Macao, and Hong Kong, Singapore etc At this time the activity of free economic zone was more concentrated on trade But the first free economic zones in new concept were Shanoon that was inaugurated in Ireland in 1959 For the first time the main goals of Shanoon was attracting foreign investment, transferring technology and creating employment The establishment of free trade-industrial zone in developing country is an economic phenomenon in recent 25 years (http: /// www Freezones Ir/ World Free zones/ world free zones History/ tabid/ 145/ Default aspx) Free zones are bridge between international and national economy The most principle subject of free economic zones is foreign investment As soon as unsafe and low-efficiency, it leaves free zone and move to more safety area So, by development of Information and communication Technology (ICT), the trend of 582 changes gradually entered to new stage in twentieth century in 1970s In the mid 1980s, ICT left its sign in all grounds and instead of free industrial zones, concepts such as post-industrial and post modern was replaced for reference to these changes But in 1990s the concept of Globalization became widespread and today it is a dominant concept of contemporary time as nowadays anything examine by reference to this concept (Iran zadeh,2002, 17) According to Paul laudician, the world is small and globalization made it small even in confrontation with crises and disorders (Laudician, et al, 2006, 1) Globalization refers to absolute business freedom, clear all obstacles, easy capital flow and its influence in all areas and also smooth flow of information, financial affairs and services, and finally cultural interferences towards integration and uniformity Some believes that globalization term refers to the book of Marshal Mc Luhan titled as "war and peace in world village" that published in 1970 At this book McLuhan divided the world into three phases: Verbal civilization or verbal galaxy Written civilization or Gutenberg galaxy which start with print invention Electronic civilization or Marceny galaxy which start with Radio invention by Marceny McLuhan believes that the current word moves towards old village (verbal civilization) because people more communicate with each other by face to face and verbal culture spread by Radio, Television, Satellite and Internet McLuhan declares that face to face communications has been exposed to public view Also M.castells by reference to information era, believes that globalization is the appearance of a type of networked society which covers the economical and cultural area of society David Harvey considers the rapid development process of societies and cultures as involving two concepts: The density of time and place and reduce of distances In fact according to Harvey the density of time and place is the main specificity of globalization That is, distances is reduced or disappeared The world seems more and more small Human being and societies approach to each other in a manner So, globalization is a process that improves social relations Globalization replaces the local relations to global relations (Iran zadeh, 2002, 27) Cities specially metropolises play a key role in globalization process and considered as Gateway of globalization (Annapurna Shaw et al, 2006, 3) Despite this specificity, cities are sub-system of country national system Obviously, the more country national system interacts with international system, the more active and dynamic city system will be, or vise versa Within this hypothesis, this research is intended to analyze the position of Iran's cities by analyzing total system of country and explaining its position in global system So, this study tries to answer this question by considering Iran's situation in globalization process based on the result of the usage of two models: Kof and A.T Kearney and tries to consider activity records related to globalization by establishing free zones and also to review problems of free zone due to combining in global economy First, it explains the indexes and hypothesis of globalization in cities then analyze Iran's situation in globalization process City globalization trend City globalization depend on the level of globalization of country in economical, social, political and technological aspects; But cities play a key role in globalization process This hypothesis that world moves towards urbanization is a fact that is happening Because according to UN statistics in 1950 only 29% of world population (734 million) lived in cities, this rate was 45 %( 2.5 billion) in 1944 and it is expected to reach 60% in the first decades of 21 century (Rahnama et al, 2006, 19) Also another fact that is happening now is the hypothesis that says cities gradually move towards globalization Current statistics show that in 1950s, there were only 83 towns which had over one million populations and most of them were placed in developed 583 country But in 1995 the number of cities which had a million populations was 253 that most of them are located in developing country May be for the first time the term "world city" was used by Patrick Geddes, a Scotch city planner in 1915 which refers to developed cities into new larger grouping or con-urbantion (Meekam Ng & Petter Hill, 2003, 151) Following that, Sir Peter Hall published "world cities" in 1966 He considered that how cities like New York, London, Tokyo, Paris, and Moscow growth fast and extend their domination in order to be top world cities Peter Hall recognized these cities as a main center of political power, national and international states, trade, finance resources, communication and centralization of brains in education and research In globalization era real cities are more important than every other time Cities are centers for production, distribution and consumption (Gallis, Micheal, 2002, 2) According this, hypotheses haven been suggested about city globalizations as follow: Fridman's world city hypotheses: In 1968, John Fridman and Goetz Wolf brought up "world city hypotheses" (Meekam Ng et al, 2003, 152) Hypotheses presented by Friedman argue that "international labor division" are organized by world cities These cities are unique because they operate as "control centers" for world capital accumulation and thus obtaining internal economical and social structures Friedman suggests a hierarchy among the list of world cities and it has been cited largely due to experimental and educational importance but because of the lack of any obvious foundation, it is especially poor The main problems about the results of Fridman's research are the measurement of world city specifications then their categorization in many tables Tailor has found fault with this categorization He says this categorization present nothing about internal communications (J.V Beaverstock et al, 2000, 45) Another basic problem of friedman's hierarchy is that, it has ignored the complication of European city system where some relatively small cities (Zurich, Vein, Amsterdam, …) had an inappropriate effect on world and contrary to political integrated atmosphere of America which Friedman did research in, the specialization of European cities combined with large national capital and formed an urban model that obviously is not hierarchical altogether Sassen's triad of world cities hypotheses Sassen's task is especially important for exact recognition of world city nature Although she has recognized changes in financial resources and international banking as a foundation in his hypothesis, he convinced that world cities are more important than financial centers In Sassen's view, financial resources are a series of advanced service productions which determines the function of world cities as "post-industrial production places" This contradiction with primary Friedman's view of world cities as "general command centers" is due to the centralization of the head offices of companies which Sassen has not considered as a fundamental element of world city The main difference for Sassen is that a world city is a center for basic services of world capital not its management Anyway when the question of world hierarchy is presented, Sassen's analysis power is weakened Although her argument is more about inter-city financial exchanges But data easily don't reveal that whether three groups (Tokyo, London, New York) really show the climax of world hierarchy? In general, he provided a comparative study of worth from world cities and worthy results regarding to parallel changes between New York, London and Tokyo Any way, his analysis is not much of improving our understanding of inter-cities communications 584 When we consider the role of London in a European urban system, a serious fault is specified (J.V Beaverstock and et al, 2000, 45) The Rise of the Network society According to Friedman and Sassen, world city considered as "basic point" or "centers of world service productions" that can be studied as "process" A Manual castells (1996) used the Rise of the Network society to understand world city He says that in Network society world cities are combinations of more extensive social changes and world cities accumulate and preserve their wealth and power because the process of advanced services link the markets and production centers in global net (castells, 1996, 380) World cities are produced and reproduced by the flow of knowledge, information, money and cultural products not fixed specifications (form and output) So, theoretically for measurement and standardization have been used castells's view (1996) in which the city considered as process (space of flows), world city hypothesis of Fridman (1986) for changeable world economy and analysis hypothesis of Sassen for accumulation and centrality of service-production series of world city Experiences of city globalization The best examples about the experience of cities entrance to globalization process are the Southeast countries of Asia including china, Indonesia, and India etc Chinese cities enter into globalization century by large forces Annexation of china to world trade organization (WTO) from 2001 and development of free economy are two main factors in entering the china to globalization century (Fulong Wu 2006, 191) In a study done about the globalization of Shanghai in China (Yehua Dennis etal, 2006, 231) the importance of foreign direct investment on alternation of Shanghai to world city has been emphasized China changed its centralization from state socialism and self-sufficient to open doors policy and globalization since 1970s and many cities followed a bravely policy of attracting the foreign investment since 1990s and by establishing foreign direct investment regions they wanted to reach this goal In Shanghai a large amount of FDI in addition to service section use at industrial section The important role of industry in Shanghai has changed the situation of this city as a developing world city like Seoul, Tokyo that emphasizes on factory industries and products with higher technology In addition to above factors the government play a key role in globalization by ratifications of laws and implementation of policies for more attracting foreign investment and establishing development regions like science-research parks, transportation terminals etc, as until 2002, from 500 world companies, which established offices or factories in shanghai, 166 company have invested in this city The cause of increasing foreign investment in Shanghai in comparison to other cities is that municipal has been combined structurally with world economy more than other provinces and organization of investment regions in national level in Shanghai helped to attract more foreign direct investment These regions are one another supplementary In spite of these efforts, Shanghai is in the first stage of globalization and there are problems in the way of the globalization of this city that summarized in three groups as follow: There is the minority with high-income and majority with low-income level in comparison to world standards and the relative low-income level damaged to steps of interchanging Shanghai economy to world economy Financial national comparison changing to section is still poor and the process of major company's formation is slow In 2000 only companies had been among 500 World Company Shanghai stock exchange in to classical stock exchange like New York is very small and is in the first stage of a world financial center 585 Like other parts of China, Shanghai maintained the high level of administrative bureaucracy that indicates the political economic nature of China Although Shanghai has done major reforms on this field, municipal in comparison to other world cities is behind time in terms of transparency Adaptation with world culture in the way of social and political is necessary (Yehua Dennis et al, 2006, 243) Anders Lofgren (2000, 501) in a paper as "hundred years of loneliness, globalization from the perspective of European peripheral city" by description the situation of Trondheim, the third city of Norway with population of 160000 and regional center with half a million people, is intended to answer this question: "how small cities must reply to globalization" and also stated that more globalization arguments is on the big cities and more emphasized on competition as an answer to globalization But at the present time most of the cities face with challenge of global and local changes The selection of strategy and policy are two major aspects of city reaction globalization In cities like above-mentioned city, the aim of the policies is local If the city ask for international goals, the review of regional-local and even national policies will be necessary (Anders Lofgren, 2000, 503) Another example of cities which placed in globalization process is Dubai united Arab Emirates in south of Persian gulf which has opened the stock market doors to the world since 2005.UAE receives no taxes or not impose any pressure on companies like some of western stock markets The major banks and commerce chambers have established offices on new financial part of Dubai Dubai as a country which is concerned to globalization, attracted thousands immigrants from Asia, Middle East and Europe About 80% of Dubai's population are immigrants Labors are from Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Palestine territory (the Global top 20, 2006, 81) In 2006, $ 2.1 billion goods have been exported to Iran via Dubai port More than half of Dubai investors are Iranian About one third of the passengers of this sheikhdom are Iranian (http:// www iranecomics Net/ fa/ articles Asp? Id= 1615 and magid=83) Finally, in summing up world cities done by Labored group, parts of world cities have been determined including: law Banking Marketing and Accountancy If a city wants to be in global level, it must have from parts Cities like New York, London, Paris and Tokyo place in first group, in third group world cities which at least have two parts such as Rome, Ban kook, Melbourne, Koalalampore etc … The cities of Iran not include in any categorization (John Scot Allen, 2006, 78) So, according to studies by global centers (labored group) about globalization of cities, it is clear that Iran's cities are not in any world city categorizations Thus, Iran cities confront with challenges in globalization process which must be solved These challenges and problem summarized as follow Globalization trend of Iran cities As it said before, cities are national sub-system of country and as much as a country combine and interact with global process; the cities more combine in this process So, the analysis of Iran cities globalization process requires the review of Iran globalization trend as follows: Country globalization trend Although the globalization process has historical record but the transformation in 1962s and the selection of industrial development model for country progress and the flow of assembly industry to country prepared the ground for extensive connection with abroad Since 1971s, following the rise of oil price and oil incomes the industrialization process and foreign investment flows increased in country The globalization process at this time is only specified based on index of foreign investment rate Foreign investment flow to country has decreased until 1979, as (without accounting oil industry) foreign investment from $ 17 million in 1973 amounted to $ 88 million in 1979 and about 95% of investments attracted by industry The outbreak of Islamic revolution along with start Iraq war against Iran (1981-1989) not only caused government have more control on all social-economical affairs but also the instability of law reduced the flow of foreign investment rate and in some years reduced to zero, as during 1981 to1988 the foreign investment was $ 155 million in total which attracted by industry part 586 The globalization perspective is not clear in Iran from1979 to 1989 but obviously at this time, following the outflow of capital and specialized labor and civil instabilities, we confronted with not-attraction foreign investment After the cease of Iraq war against Iran in 1989 and the collection of development program for country, the ground for foreign investment was prepared The start of Iran globalization is in accompany with preparations in regard to the establishment of free economic zones Generally, the establishment history of free economic zones which are national gates for globalization, return to approve of the note of law 19 of the first development program (1989-1994) and at the final year of this program, three free zones, Gheshm, Kish and Chabahar emerged The establishment of secretariat of High council of free zones in 1993 and the ratification of law about management quality of Free trade-industrial zones of Islamic Republic of Iran in September in1994 and delegation of government authorities to High council of free zones in 1995, prepared more grounds for flourishing of trade zones.( http: // www Freezones Ir/ world free zones History/ tabid/ 145/ Default Asp) These preparations leads to opening of over 20 free trade zones in the country (like Kish free zone, Chabahar free zones, Gheshm free zones, Bandar Anzali special trade zone, Arvand free zones, Jolfa special trade zone, salafchagan special trade zone, Sirjan special trade zone, shiraz special trade zone of electronic and electricity, Pars Energy special trade zone, Payam special trade zone etc).( http:// www Kishtpc Com/ Free Trade % 20 zones-Persian Htm) In spite of the approve of law about Free trade Zones and establishment of such areas, the problems of these areas in attracting the foreign direct investment is as follow: Structural problem: structural problem include lack of main investment of government in basic development infrastructures of free trade zones and construction of all infrastructure taxes of imported goods, lack of electricity, gas, fresh water and high tariff of water an electricity, as the price of gas oil is four times in comparison to other parts of the country(mainland) Other problems such as weakness of banking system and its inefficiency (national facilities rate is 16% but in kish it is 25%), the problem of air transportation (getting ticket is in form of charter, lack of change in number of kish flight from 1979 to 2007 indicating crises over Iran's free trade zones) and numerous changes in land use, from industrial to trade and trade to tourism specially in kish The problem of legal vacuum: Another main weakness of country free trade zone is legal vacuum Disappointment of investors due to no but their concern in changing government policy and losing their assets is another problem as well Different view of managers to free zones and ignoring the free trade code by middle managers led to capital and investor flight from free zones Non-partnership of private section in decision-making is another managerial and administrative problem of free trade zones Other problem of free trade zones is the amendment of free zones code including the increase of the length of land lease by foreigner from 15 years to 50 years (like Chinese).(http:// www Iraneconomics.Net/ fa/ articles asp? Id= 1615 and magid= 83) The review of globalization index in Iran specially after Islamic revolution in 1979 shows this reality In a period that other countries were intent on economic liberalization (China, India, Indonesia etc), the obvious specialty of Iran governmental system was centralism and govermentalization of total affairs due to overthrow of Pahlavi regime (1979) and the start of Iraq imposed war against Iran (1981) Nevertheless, after passing lo years of revolution, finally the authorities took step for connection to world economy by ratification the law of the formation free economic zones But because of cultural problems and non-existence of definite strategy, they were not so much successful and in some years they faced with a lot of fluctuations from stop to relatively flourish of foreign investment As, during recent 12 years from 1995 to 2007, in total $ 7.3 billion FDI attracted by non-oil parts of country That is the annual average of FDI has been $ 610 million (http:// www iraneconomics.Net/ fa/ articles asp? id = 2812 and mango=98) When comparing these figures with $ 2.1 billion rate of goods that imported from Dubai in 2006, we realize the poor situation of Iran in globalization process (http:// www iraneconomics.net/ fa/ articles asp?id=1609 and magid=83) In order to more comprehensive analysis of Iran's situation in globalization process, at this section after description of globalization history, we consider the results of two measurement indexes in country globalizations and Iran's situation from economical, cultural and political aspects in globalization process Iran's situation in globalization process based on Kof and A.T.kearney Kof globalization Index Kof Index presented in 2002 (Dreher, 2006).This index includes economical, social and political aspects of globalization To be precise, three aspects of Kof Index consist of: Economic globalization: described as long flow of goods, capital and services as well as information and supplies that accompany market changes 587 Politics globalization: that is determined by issue and promotion of government policies Social globalization: described as the development of ideas, information, pictures and people At table No.1 the results of usage of Kof globalization index determined for 122 countries in 2007 Iran among other countries place in 155 level that indicates the poor situation of country in globalization process and requires to tackle of globalization obstacles in different aspects Table 1: Kof globalization Index for 2007* Total index of globalization Level : 115 Country Belgium Austria : Iran 122 Burundi Economic globalization index Score Level 91/96 291/60 35.19 115 25.75 122 Country Luxemburg Singapore Saudi Arabia Myanmar Social globalization index Score Level Country 98.49 Austria 95.14 Singapore Xxx 115 Myanmar xxx 122 xxx Political globalization index Score Level 93.10 95.49 26.52 115 10.24 122 Country France America New Guinea Bahamas Score 98.06 96.11 17.86 11.44 Xxx The information is not available * Gradation base on data of 2004 Source: http:// yaleglobal yale edu/ display article? Id=8313 2- Globalization index based on A.T.kearney method Globalization index of A.T.kearney foreign policy involves three parts: economic combination (FDI-etc), Technological (the number of Internet users etc …) and political (country memberships in international organization etc …) According these parts, 62 countries have been graded based on globalization index in 2005 which have had 96% gross domestic production (GDP) and 85% of world population It covered major areas of the world from developed countries and developing countries to prepare an extensive view of world combination (2005 Globalization Index Data and Methodology, et al, 2005, 5) Table No.2 shows the Iran's situation among 62 countries based on fifth annual A.T.kearney globalization index The main point is that Iran has been placed at lowest level in these years Table 2: Iran's situation in A.T.kearney globalization index Globalization index 2001 Level : 50 Country Singapore Holland : Iran Globalization index Globalization index 2003 2002 level : 62 country Ireland Switzerland : Iran level : 62 country Ireland Switzerland : Iran Globalization index 2004 Level : 62 Country Ireland Singapore : Iran Globalization index 2005 Level : 62 Country Singapore Switzerland : Iran Source: http:// www World audit.org/ Globalization %20 index %20 htm In spit of the establishment of free economic zones as a communicative bridge in globalization trend of country, the structural problems of free economic zones along with weakness of law and legislations, variable foreign policy, political disputes between Iran and U.S, unilateral sanction of Us and more recently arguments about uranium enrichment in Iran led to serious problems in FDI process in the country and made the economy go into recession (Figure No.1 shows the Foreign investment trend in Iran during 1999 to 2003) Internet limitations reduced the technological communication of country with abroad The number of per capita security server is meager in Iran even less than Bangladesh; not being constant online of servers and government control on Internet users is another globalization problem 588 According to this report, it is a long time that Iran has been forgotten in terms of personal calls of its citizens The ration of tourists (arrival and departure) to country population is 7%, even less than Senegal and in comparison to Saudi Arabia which has 47/2% Clearly, in most of the grounds Iran is slow (The fifth annual A.T.kearney/ foreign policy Globalization Index, 2005, 5) Figure No.1: FDI trend in Iran since 1999 to 2003 Source: united Nations http:// www atkearney.com/ shared-res/ pdf/ REID-Epc-s.pdf Future Challenges of globalization of Iran's cities In Iran not only the practical actions for link to world economy started with delay and moves forward more slowly and ambiguously but also scientific literature related to globalization is in the first stage, as from total number of main 16 sources most common, writing, translation including book and paper which are printed in Iran since1992 to 2007, 69% of them printed since 2002 Not major and fundamental work has been done in the connection of city globalizations Even, until now the measurement methods and models of globalization including above-mentioned models not printed in any Persian sources So, there is informational poverty to determine the strategy of combination quality in globalization process not only in theoretical but practical aspect as well Iran cities are not able to actions in globalization process from national system As, it said before, the establishment of three Free economic zone kish, Chabahar, Gheshm since 1989 to 1994 has been the first formal action for Iran combination in globalization process and the ratification of law of free economic zone and establishment of High council of free zones and formation about 20 free economic zones in country border sides has been another major action along globalization and connection of national economy to world economy So, the cities are located at the center of these zones such as Kish, Chabahar, and Gheshm acted as entrance gates in globalization process These cities in terms of function and population number are lack of regional-national politics centrality and their output is more local-regional But due to good geographical (naval) situation and access to international waters, they have been suitable entrance gates and knot point for linking the national economy to world economy Considering the prominent geographical situation of all free economic zones (20 zones) and its slow movement, if there were definite strategy for linking to world economy, 15 years period to compete with centers like Dubai and Doha etc would be enough Accomplishment of free trade zones in globalization the country and cities in the area have been much insignificant These problems consist of: Cultural problems (different view of Islamic Republic to world cultural issues and their incompatibility to one another) 589 Structural problems including non-governmental investment in infrastructural of free zones development like: providing electricity grid, fresh water, gas, city installations, fuel (the high price of fuel which is times in Kish free zone in comparison to other part of the countrymainland) numerous changes of the usages of development plan The weakness of banking and financial system in free economic zones and, air transportation system managerial problems (inexperienced and unfamiliar manger to international affairs) Legal vacuum and weaknesses such as instability of free economic zone codes and their insufficiency and the amendment of some of them include (law of 15 years land lease etc …) Cities are national sub-system and as much a country globalize in terms of economical, social and political as those cities change and to be adapted with world system According to Castelle's theory, in global net, cities are the centre of communication and link and act as product, marketing and consumption If the general system of country changes structurally, cities as a net focuses will increase their globalization speed in this scuffle In fact, challenges in front of globalization of Iran's cities are the same indexes and variables that cited in "Kof" and "Kearney" report thus, Iran cities must change in terms of software (law and legislations, policy and structures) and hardware (installations, equipments and possibilities) and also in terms of political-cultural compatibility (like model that metropolis Istanbul adopt in Turkey) to be adapted with world system Conclusion Thus, In a condition that world globalizations and city globalization is an inevitable matter, considering the country geographical situation, strengthening the free economic zone as an entrance gates and communicative bridge between national land and abroad, The globalization process despite delayed movement is increasing but requires solving structural problems (infrastructural investments and tackling cultural, managerial and legal vacuum Voluntary acceptance of globalization demands to take fundamental bold steps along structural reform of decision making, partnership and economical, social, and political combination in globalization process That is, in fact it is compatibility with Kof and A.T.Keanray suggested indexes) Reference Annapurna Shaw & M.K.Satish(2006),Metropolitan restructuring in post-liberalized I ndia:Seperating the glibal and local,Cities Vol.xx No pp1-3(article in press) Fulong Wu, Laurence J.C.Ma,(2006) Transforming china’s globalizing cities, Habitat international, 30,191-198 Gallis ,Micheal ,Russell,James S.(2002), World City ,Architectural Record ,Vol,190,Issue 3.p70, Iran zadeh, Soliman,(2001) globalization and strategic changes in management and organization, samara publication, Tabriz, Meekam Ng & Petter Hill (2003), World cities or grate cities? 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Id=ARE1645 http://www.atkearney.com/main.taf?p=5,4,1,1165http://www.atkearney.com/shared_res/pdf/RFID-EPC_S.pdf 591 ... indexes and hypothesis of globalization in cities then analyze Iran's situation in globalization process City globalization trend City globalization depend on the level of globalization of country... involving two concepts: The density of time and place and reduce of distances In fact according to Harvey the density of time and place is the main specificity of globalization That is, distances... solved These challenges and problem summarized as follow Globalization trend of Iran cities As it said before, cities are national sub-system of country and as much as a country combine and interact