The article is devoted to the problems accompanying the development of world cities and the trends in the formation and functioning of global urban networks. A review and analysis of the basic concepts for the development and formation of world cities and their functional characteristics is made. Thus, the formation and development of global cities has several dimensions: geographical, economic, demographic and others. The ongoing processes of urbanization and globalization of socio-economic relations lead to the formation of transnational networks of cities through spatial interaction between global urban centers. The intensification of these processes is also dictated by the dynamic development of new technologies, which puts global cities as centers of development and growth. Thus, global cities appear as a center of attraction and form the new geoeconomic system of the new century.

regional development, territory, urban networks, global city, urbanization