CHENGDU, the capital of southwestern China’s Sichuan Province, overtook technology hub Shenzhen to top the Milken Institute’s 2019 index of the nation’s best-performing cities. This is the third time that Chengdu, best known for its pandas, has been ranked first since the list began in 2015. The index incorporated nine indicators for the period up to 2017, including employment and wage growth, the growth in gross regional product per capita, and foreign direct investment. Chengdu’s five-year job growth was the highest among the first and second tier cities at almost 180 percent. In recent years, Chengdu has become an attractive destination for young, educated workers seeking a cheaper location as rents rise in Beijing and Shanghai. Technology companies have set up service centers in the manufacturing hub, and startups have also gravitated toward its laid-back and progressive culture. The data used in this year’s Milken index doesn’t include 2018, when a protracted trade dispute with the United States began. Places such as Shenzhen and Suzhou, an industrial hub in Jiangsu Province, could experience a short-term negative economic impact, it said. Beijing rose nine places to rank third among the country’s bigger cities, bolstered by an influx of investment into its eastern Tongzhou, which is being developed into another city center that will host the municipal government, hospitals and some universities. Lanzhou, at the center of China’s “Belt and Road” initiative, came in fourth and Henan capital Zhengzhou was fifth. (SD-Agencies) |