SHENZHEN took third place for service industry competitiveness among cities in China, according to a report released at a national annual conference of the service industry recently held in Weihai, Shangdong Province, the Shenzhen Special Zone Daily reported yesterday.

Following Beijing and Shanghai, Shenzhen ranks third in terms of the competitiveness of the city’s service industry.

The report was conducted by a research institute under Guangdong University of Foreign Studies that is focused on the international service economy and led by Lin Jishuang, head of the research center. It is the third year the group has released the report at a national academic conference.

The study group has been carrying out long-term research on the service industries in Chinese cities. The report was conducted based on statistics collected and sorted from a broad range of sources.

Apart from the top three cities, the other seven cities in the top 10 are Guangzhou, Chongqing, Hangzhou, Tianjin, Suzhou, Nanjing and Wuhan.

The report also ranked cities based on other performance factors in the service industry, such as development level, environment and potentiality, as well as by consulting regional lists.

The development of the service industry has been a key factor in building the country’s economy and could help the country achieve a high rate of economic development as well as industrial upgrade, according to the report.

In 2017, China’s GDP was 82,712.2 billion yuan (US$12,116 billion), with the service industry contributing approximately 51.6 percent, making it the pillar industry of the nation.

(Zhang Qian)