SHENZHEN has taken second place nationwide for its government’s comprehensive performance scoring, according to a bluebook on the performance of local governments released by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and the Social Sciences Academic Press for the first time Wednesday, the Shenzhen Economic Daily reported Thursday. According to the bluebook, Beijing, Shenzhen and Hangzhou are far ahead of their competitors on the list, taking the first three spots. Based on the bluebook’s result, the top 10 cities on the list are Beijing, Shenzhen, Hangzhou, Guangzhou, Shanghai, Tianjin, Qingdao, Nanjing, Wuhan and Dalian. The Shenzhen government’s performance score followed that of Beijing as a veritable frontrunner in national administrative reform and government construction, according to the report. Experts noted that these cities have played leading roles in gathering resources and impacting their surrounding areas, especially the Pearl River Delta urban cluster, which is represented by Shenzhen, and the Yangtze River Delta region, which is represented by Shanghai and Hangzhou. The report provides an original quantitative assessment of the integrated governance performance of four municipalities, 15 subprovincial cities and 317 local governments in the country. Experts also pointed out that municipalities and subprovincial cities are playing important roles in the economic rise of China. For instance, the top 15 in the country’s urban economy in 2012 were either municipalities or subprovincial cities. Thus, these cities should take the responsibility of making the best of their leading roles to influence other cities in terms of government performance and other aspects in order to help the country achieve balanced development, the experts suggested. (Zhang Qian) |