Ranking shows growing influence

Guangzhou, capital of South China’s Guangdong province, has improved its competitiveness as a regional transportation hub and an international financial and trade center in recent years.

The city ranked No 15 in terms of economic competitiveness and No 36 in terms of sustainable competitiveness among major world cities, according to the Global Urban Competitiveness Report 201718.

The report was released by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and UN-Habitat at the International Forum on Urban Competitiveness in Guangzhou on Oct 30.

The report looks at the economic competitiveness of 1,007 cities in the world and the sustainable competitiveness of 1,035 cities.

New York, Los Angeles, Singapore, London, San Francisco and Shenzhen were ranked the top six in terms of economic competitiveness.

Three other major Chinese cities — Hong Kong, Shanghai and Beijing — ranked 12th, 14th and 20th in terms of economic competitiveness, respectively.

Guangzhou has also launched a range of events to mark this year’s World Cities Day on Oct 31.

The events, which were jointly organized by the Ministry of Housing and UrbanRural Development, the Guangdong provincial government and UN-Habitat, ran from Oct 30 to Nov 1.

“The World Cities Day events and its ranking in the urban competitiveness report show that Guangzhou’s competitiveness and international influence have won global recognition,” said Zhang Yueguo, head of the Guangzhou Academy of Social Sciences.

Top experts from UN-Habitat and major cities around the world provided fresh insights into the urban development of Guangzhou at the forum.

Ni Pengfei, a lead author of the urban competitiveness report and director of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences’ City and Competitiveness Research Center, said Guangzhou has a big advantage in its cultural and ecological environment, which attracts professionals and investments as a magnet.

The city’s relatively reasonable housing prices have also improved its overall sustainable competitive strength, Ni said.

In June, Guangdong was named an Alpha city for the first time and ranked No 40 in the world city rating report by the Globalization and World Cities Research Network, commonly abbreviated to GaWC, a think tank that studies the relationships between world cities in the context of globalization.

According to GaWC, Alpha cities are those considered “very important world cities that link major economic regions and states into the world economy”.

Guangzhou also ranked No 32 in the 22nd Global Financial Centers Index, up from 37th place in the previous rankings.

The study, released by British consultancy services provider Z/Yen Group and Shenzhen-based think tank China Development Institute in September, researched 108 cities globally in its latest edition.

For the first time, the city was listed among the top 40 financial centers in the world in the ratings and was categorized as a dynamic financial center.