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May 22, 2012

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China competitiveness: Shanghai ranks 4th

SHANGHAI ranks fourth among 294 Chinese cities on a list rating their competitiveness, according to a report by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

Hong Kong, Taipei and Beijing took the top three places.

Of the 50 leading cities, 70 percent were in China's eastern coastal region.

While eastern and southern cities, as a geographic group, were still the most competitive, several western China cities displayed tremendous growth, the report said.

The report, the 10th annual review released by the government-backed academy, investigated and analyzed factors in 2011 that affected a city's urban development potential.

It was conducted by nearly 100 experts who concluded that the difference in competitiveness had reduced from region to region amid the country's overall economic development over the past decade. While eastern coastal cities remained the most robust competitors during the past 10 years, inland cities were catching up fast.

But the report pointed out that the development potential was out of balance in cities in China's vast middle region - while the larger ones were making rapid progress by attracting workers and professionals, lower-tier ones were lagging behind with their sluggish development. However, compared to 2010, more cities from middle China gained top-50 positions last year.

Ordos, a city with rich mineral resources in northern China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, saw the biggest growth in competitiveness among all Chinese cities during the past 10 years. Shenzhen, Guangzhou, Tianjin, Hangzhou, Qingdao and Changsha, in that order, followed Shanghai to complete the top 10, the report said.

The ability to attract professional talent and government managerial and service systems had now replaced some other basic factors, such as the convenience of urban infrastructure, to become the core elements to consolidate a city's competitiveness, it added.

China's overall economic output was becoming increasingly concentrated on the contribution by urbanized areas, the report said. Up to 65.81 percent of the national GDP in 2010 came from major Chinese cities, up by 15.6 percent from 2001.

The booming development potential in Chinese cities also spurred rapid growth in their populations. The latest national census showed about 666 million people lived in urbanized areas in 2010, a 50 percent growth from 10 years ago.




 

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