SHENZHEN came in at 66th place on the 2017 Global City Competitiveness List that was released by the National Academy of Economic Strategy, the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and United Nations Habitat recently.

    The list aims to evaluate the potential competitiveness of cities by considering six major factors including global connection, local demand, software environment and hardware environment.

    Hong Kong, Shanghai and Beijing all ranked among the top 10 most competitive cities in the world.

    Hong Kong came in at 6th, followed by Shanghai at 7th and Beijing at 8th.

    According to the report, the top 10 most competitive cities in the world are London, New York, Tokyo, Paris, Singapore, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Beijing, Sydney and Frankford.

    The list showed more Asian cities than European or North American cities in the top 10.

    The average competitiveness score of the 69 Chinese cities among the 505 cities evaluated across the world is 0.31, slightly higher than the global average of 0.304, indicating that the competitiveness of Chinese cities stands at an average level.

    There are 17 Chinese cities among the world’s top 200 competitive cities, showing that only a few Chinese cities are competitive globally, while the majority of them still lag behind.

    Among Chinese cities, Taipei took 25th and Macao was ranked 81st. Tianjin, Hangzhou, Xi’an; Kaohsiung, Dalian, Suzhou, Nanjing and Xiamen were ranked among the top 200.

    In Guangdong, Shenzhen is followed by Guangzhou at 74th and Dongguan at 154th. Zhongshan was ranked 202nd.

    The report particularly analyzes the competitiveness of cities along routes covered by the Belt and Road Initiative, especially the status of their urban development and global connections.

    According to the report, the distribution of competitive cities along the routes shows a U-shape. The most competitive cities are gathered in the more developed eastern and western ends, while cities in the central areas of the routes are less competitive.

    Shenzhen ranked 19th in the latest ratings of global financial centers, advancing four positions with 688 points, according to the Global Financial Centers Index (GFCI), a report released by the Z/Yen Group in April 2016.

    (Han Ximin)