The 12th Report on China's Urban Competitiveness release

National Academy of Economic Strategy of CASS

Major Achievement Release: The 12^th Report on China's Urban Competitiveness

Shanghai, Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Anhui:

A World Super Economic Area Has Emerged

Over the past 30 years, China's current economic center Shanghaiand Yangtze River Delta Region have played a leading role in China's economicdevelopment. The great decision of constructing China(Shanghai) FreeTrade Area, which has been made recently, will further enhance this area’sposition of commanding height. However, as the leader of China’s economy, this region should also undertakegreater responsibility in China’sas well as global development patterns. This report has found that a worldsuper economic area, which covers Shanghai, Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Anhui’s morethan 40 prefecture-level and central cities, has emerged in the vast space northto LongHai Railway, south to Nanshan District, west to Jingjiu Railway, andeast to Yellow Sea and East China Sea. Making the best use of the circumstancesand promoting the construction of this super economic area is of greatsignificance for driving our country’s development, thus to participate inglobal competition and realize China'sdream.

On May 9, 2014, Release Ceremony of The 12^th Report on China's Urban Competitiveness: hanghai,Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Anhui: A World Super Economic Area Has Emerged, whichis a major achievement of National Academy of Economic Strategy of CASS, was co-heldin Beijing by National Academy of Economic Strategy of CASS, Social SciencesAcademic Press and Center for City and Competitiveness of CASS. Blue Book of China’sUrban Competitiveness: China’sUrban Competitiveness Report (The Report) was co-released on this ceremony.It is co-completed within more than half a year, led by Researcher Ni Pengfei (Assistantto the Director of Center for City and Competitiveness of CASS) andparticipated by experts of urban competitiveness from Mainland China as wellas from Hong Kong-Macao-Taiwan region.

Li Peilin (Deputy President Academy Member of CASS), NiuWenyuan (Counselor of the State Council and Researcher of CAS), Gao Peiyong (Directorof Institute of Finance and Trade Economics of CASS), Li Shantong (Director ofDevelopment Research Center of the State Council), Xiao Jincheng (Director ofInstitute of Spatial Planning & Regional Economy of National Developmentand Reform Commission), Zhang Bing (Chief Planner of China Academy of UrbanPlanning and Design), Lu Qinyi (Director of Anhui Academy of Social Sciences), ZhangHaohan (Chairman of Jiangsu Social Science Association), Li Xinyu (Director ofExchange Center for International Friendship Cities of Chinese People'sAssociation for Friendship with Foreign Countries), Xing Jun (Director ofInstitute of Contemporary Anhui of Auhui Academy of Social Sciences), YangJianzhong (Secretary of the Party Working Committee of Nantong BinhaiIndustrial Park) and Shi Hongjie (Director of Administrative Committee ofNantong Binhai Industrial Park) attended this conference, which was chaired byXie Shouguang (President of Social Sciences Academic Press). Ni Pengfei(Assistant to the Director of Center for City and Competitiveness of CASS) and someother experts introduced their researching achievements on behalf of theresearch group.  

Leaders and experts at this conference jointly reviewed Chinesecities’ changes and developments since China’sUrban Competitiveness Report was published, as well as the arduous processof China'surban competitiveness studies. They fully affirmed China’s Urban Competitiveness Report’s guiding, motivating and decision-makingreferencing roles in China’surban development, and put forward pertinent suggestions for the report’sfuture improvement. They also had an in-depth discussion, focusing on theimportant questions which were put forward in the 12^th Report.

Through the research group’s long-term studies andexperiments, the Report constructs Urban Comprehensive Economic Competitiveness(contemporary short-term competitiveness) Index, Sustainable Competitiveness(future long-term competitiveness) Index, Livable City Competitiveness Indexand Business-Friendly City Competitiveness Index according to the principle ofindex minimized. The Report undertakes empirical research on 249 cities for Urban Comprehensive EconomicCompetitiveness and on 289 cities for Sustainable Competitiveness Index, Livable City Competitiveness Index and Business-friendly City Competitiveness Index of 2013. Italso combines with "Three-horizontal & Two-longitudinal" strategypattern of Urbanization and makes comparisons ofthese cities.

Urban ComprehensiveEconomic Competitiveness in 2013: Top ten most competitive cities converge inHong Kong-Macao-Taiwan region, southeast China and Bo Hai Coastal Region，which are(from topto bottom) Hong Kong, Shenzhen, Shanghai,Taibei, Guangzhou, Beijing, Suzhou, Tianjin, Foshan and Macao. Among them,Hong Kong-Macao-Taiwan region takes three seats; southeast coastal mainland citiestake five seats; Bo Hai Coastal Region takes two seats. There is no midwest City among the toptens. Wuhan ranks the 13^th (which rankshighest in central China), Chengdu ranks the 15^th (which ranks highest in southwestChina), Dalianranks 19^th (which ranks highest in northeast China), and Xi’anonly ranks 34^th (which ranks highest in northwest China). Regions rank as follows: Hong Kong-Macao-Taiwan,southeast Chinaand Bo Hai Coastal Region rank higher than the national average, while northeast,central, southwest and northwest regions rank lower than the national average.

Livable City Competitiveness in 2013: Southeast regions haveobvious livable advantages, while western regions are at a relative low level asa whole. Top 10 cities (from top to bottom) are Zhuhai, HongKong, Haikou, Sanya, Xiamen,Shenzhen, Zhoushan, Wuxi, Hangzhou,and Shanghai.Among them, southeast region takes seven seats, southwest region takes twoseats, and Hong Kong-Macao-Taiwan region takes one seat. Qingdaoranks 11^th(which ranks highest in Bo Hai Coastal Region), Ezhouranks 18^th(which ranks highest in central China),Karamay ranks 22^th(which ranks highest in northwest China), Wuhanranks 13^th(which ranks highest in central China),and Changchun ranks 40^th(which rankshighest in northeast China).Regions rank as follows: Hong Kong-Macao-Taiwan, southeast China and Bo Hai Coastal Region rankhigherthan the national average, while central, southwest, northeast and northwest regionsrank lower than the national average.

Business-friendly CityCompetitiveness in 2013: Ten most competitive cities have the characteristicsof having higher administrative and development levels, and being of huge size,ranking as follows: Hong Kong, Shanghai,Beijing, Shenzhen, Guangzhou,Wuhan, Chengdu, Tianjin, Nanjing, and Chongqing. Among them, southeastregion takes four seats, Bo Hai Coastal Region and southwest region eachtakes two seats, Hong Kong-Macao-Taiwan and central region each takes one seat.Shenyang ranks 16^th(which ranks highestin northeast China), Xi’an ranks 19^th (whichranks highest in northwest region). Regions rank as follows: Hong Kong-Macao-Taiwan,southeast Chinaand Bo Hai Coastal Region rank higher than the national average, while central,northeast, northwest and southwest regions rank lower than the national average.

Urban Sustainable Competitivenessin 2013: Top ten most competitive cities converge in Hong Kong-Macao-Taiwanregion, southeast China and Bo Hai Coastal Region，which are(from topto bottom) Hong Kong, Shanghai, Shenzhen,Beijing, Macao, Guangzhou, Hangzhou, Xiamen, Qingdao, and Nanjing. Among them, northeastregion takes six seats, Hong Kong-Macao-Taiwan and Bo Hai Coastal Region each takestwo seats. Dalian ranks 14^th (which rankshighest in northeast China),Wuhan ranks 17^th (which ranks highestin central China), Chengdu ranks 18^th (which ranks highest in southwestChina) and Xi’anranks 27^th(which ranks highest in northwest China). Regions rank as follows: Hong Kong-Macao-Taiwanregion, southeast Chinaand Bo Hai Coastal Region rank higher than the national average, while northeast,central, northwest and southwest regions rank lower than the national average.

Knowledge City Competitivenessin 2013: Beijingtakes the first place, and there is an obvious disparity between the east andthe west regions. Top ten cities (from top to bottom) are Beijing, Shanghai, Nanjing, HongKong, Hangzhou, Guangzhou,Shenzhen, Wuhan, Tianjin,and Dalian.Among them, southeast region takes five seats, Bo Hai Coastal Region takes twoseats, Hong Kong-Macao-Taiwan, central region and northeast region each takesone seat. Regions rank as follows: Hong Kong-Macao-Taiwan ranks the highest,following by southeast and Bo Hai Coastal Region, while southwest region rankslowest.

Harmonious City Competitiveness in 2013: The level of all citiesas a whole is low. Top ten cities (from top to bottom) are Hong Kong, Macao, Xiamen,Shenzhen, Dalian, Ningbo, Qingdao, Beijing, Changsha, and Shenyang. Among them,southeast region takes three seats, Hong Kong-Macao-Taiwan, northeast and BoHai Coastal Region each takes two seats, central region takes one seat. Regionsrank as follows: Hong Kong-Macao-Taiwan and southeast region have obviousadvantages, northeast and central region have huge potentials, while southwestand northwest regions have unsatisfactory performances.

Ecological City Competitiveness in 2013: The gap between the northand the south is obvious, small and medium-sized cities have outstandingperformances. Top ten cities (from top to bottom) are Hong Kong, Huangshan, Macao, Erdos, Shiyan,Yangzhou, Nanning,Xianning, Dalian,and Sanming. Among them, central region takes three seats, Hong Kong-Macao-Taiwanand southeast region each takes two seats, northwest and southwest andnortheast each takes one seat. Regions rank as follows: southeast region has anexcellent performance, while northwest region, Bo Hai Coastal Region andnortheast region are at a low level on the whole.

Cultural City Competitivenessin 2103: Southeast and Bo Hai Coastal Region haveexcellent performances. Top ten cities (from top to bottom) are Hong Kong, Shanghai, Beijing, Guangzhou, Macao, Hangzhou, Wuhan, Suzhou, Xi’an, and Nanjing. Among them, southeastregion takes five seats, Hong Kong-Macao-Taiwan takes two seats, Bo Hai CoastalRegion, central and northwest each takes one seat. Regions rank as follows:southeast and Bo Hai Coastal Region have excellent performances, whilenortheast and southwest are at a low level on the whole.

Macrocosm City Competitiveness in 2013: Differencesbetween east, central and west regions are obvious. Top ten cities (from top to bottom) are Hong Kong, Macao, Shenzhen, Dongguan,Beijing, Shanghai,guangzhou, Urumqi,Zhuhai and Suzhou.Among them, southeast region takes six seats, Hong Kong-Macao-Taiwan takes twoseats, Bo Hai Coastal Region and northwest region each takes one seat. Regionsrank as follows: Hong Kong-Macao-Taiwan region is far ahead, southeast regionhas good performance, while disparities among west cities are obvious.

Information City Competitiveness in 2013: Municipalitiesdirectly under the central government and provincial capitals have obviousadvantages. Top ten cities (from top to bottom) are Shenzhen, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Hong Kong, Beijing,Nanjing, Ningbo, Hangzhou, Tianjin,and Dongguan. Among them, southeast region takes seven seats, Bo Hai CoastalRegion takes two seats, Hong Kong-Macao-Taiwan takes one seat. Regions rank asfollows: Hong Kong-Macao-Taiwan and southeast region have obvious advantages, whilewest region is at a low level.

The Report finds that: First, the level of China's Urban Competitivenessis still far from the ideal state.If we take 1(which is the highest value of all kinds of competitiveness index) asthe standard of ideal cities, we can clearly find that Chinese cities are farfrom ideal cities, since their average value of most competitiveness indexes below0.4. Therefore, we still a long way to go to improve China's urbancompetitiveness integrally;second, cities included in the "Two-horizontal & Three-longitudinal"strategy pattern of Urbanization have obvious advantages as a whole. Cities which locate on the "Two-horizontal& Three longitudinal" axis have higher level of overall competitivenessthan other cities, among which cities on coastal channels give the best performances,with their entire average urban competitiveness index being the highest.

Chinesecities’ sustainable development is in the throes of transition, exposing someimportant problems to be solved immediately: Haze and high housing pricesbecome prominent social issues, and livable city construction is facing severechallenges. Investment policies depending on land and tax preferences areunsustainable, so it is urgent to construct business-friendly environment; Innovationcapacity is lacking, knowledge economy is undeveloped, and construction ofknowledge city lags behind; Contradictions and problems during socialtransition period become prominent, construction of harmonious city’s long-effectmechanism still has a long way to go; Urban ecological problems become increasinglyserious, and institutional framework of environmental protection and governanceneed to be established; City features and historical cultures die away, and culturalcity construction is inadequate; Gap between urban and rural areas has long existed,and urban-rural dual-structure need to be broken; Construction of information cityjust begins, while sharing and co-construction of information infrastructure needto be strengthened.

TheReport choose 16 cities as benchmarking and best practices from both home andabroad to guide the construction of ideal city, which are respectively asfollows. People-oriented livable city: Melbourne as international benchmarking,Zhuhai as domestic case. Entrepreneurship supreme and business-friendly city: Singapore as international benchmarking, Hong Kong as domestic case. Innovation-driven knowledge city:London as international benchmarking, Hangzhou as domestic case.Fair and inclusive harmonious city: Berlin as internationalbenchmarking, Xiamenas domestic benchmarking; Environment friendly ecological city: Berkeley as internationalbenchmarking, Huangshan as domestic case. Multicultural and unified city: Paris as international benchmarking, Shanghai as domestic case. Urban-ruralintegrated macrocosm city: Dusseldorfas international benchmarking, Shenzhen as domestic benchmarking. Open and convenientinformation city: Tokyo as internationalbenchmarking, Guangzhouas domestic case.

TheReport has made an important discovery: along with the widening and deepeningof Yangtze River Delta Regionalization, a world super economic area whichcovers Shanghai, Suzhou,Zhejiang and Anhui (three provinces and one municipality)has emerged. In the aspects of regionalization’s widening, from time dimension,based on time span, the Report finds that from 1990 to 2020, the scope of YangtzeRiver Delta Two-hours Economic Circle (in which every place can be reached withintwo hours) keeps expanding; from spatial dimension, based on gravity model, theReport, through comparing Yangtze River Delta’s attraction indexes in differentperiods, further proves that by 2020, Yangtze River Delta will form a supereconomic area. This area takes Shanghai as thecenter, and expands north to Lianyungang and Xuzhou, west to Anqing and Lu’an, south to Wenzhou and Lishui, which includes more than 40 prefecture-leveland above level cities of Shanghai, Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Anhui. In the aspects ofregionalization’s deepening, based on analysis of regional economic convergence,measurement of accessibility level, comparison of relative prices betweenregions, as well as calculation of industrial structure’s similarity and transformationspeed, the Report proves that Yangtze River Delta’s integration level haswholly improved. In 2020, a world super economic area, which has realized comprehensiveintegration in comprehensive economy, traffic system, market system, industrialsystem and other fields will appear in the vast space north to Longhai Railway,south to mountain area of South Zhejiang, west to Jingjiu Railway and east to YellowSea and East China Sea.

Shanghai-Suzhou-Zhejiang-AnhuiYangtze River Delta Super Economic Area covers 344 thousand square kilometers, withpermanent population in 2011 212.2 million and regional GDP 11.5466 trillion Yuan.It contributes 24.5% of national GDP with only 3.58% of the country's land. Italso surpasses the New York Metropolitan Area (138 thousand square kilometers,population 65 million), Tokyo Metropolitan Area (35 thousand square kilometers,population nearly 70 million), Paris Metropolitan Area (145 thousand square kilometers,total population 46 million) and London Metropolitan area (45 thousand squarekilometers, population 36.5 million) in area and population size, becoming the worldlargest super economic area.

The report recommends that we adapt to thisobjective trend and capitalize on the occasion to promote the construction of Shanghai-Suzhou-Zhejiang-AanhuiYangtze River Delta super economic area. First, make strategy planning to promote regionalcooperation and define the goal, positioning, range, hierarchy and specializationof regional development. Second, optimize space layout, which drives developmentin depth, and adhere to the layout principle of "advance to the north andoptimize the south, link to the west and expand the east, extend and upgradethe center" to construct the area’s fan shaped spatial structure with Shanghai as the center.Third, improve the coordination mechanism which balances the interests of allparties to build the "bargaining" consultation platform. Fourth,establish public governance system of deepening regional integration andrealize the transformation from local government’s simple management to networkmanagement of the whole area. Fifth, cultivate industrial clusters with competitiveadvantages to realize high-level elements, high-end industry and high urban clustering.Sixth, build infrastructure system which supports the whole area’s developmentto comprehensively improve the co-construction, sharing and interconnection amongthese three provinces and one municipality.

This blue book published by Social Science Academy Press isthe 12^th annual report of China's Urban Competitiveness ProjectGroup. Using index systems and objective data, the Report evaluates nearly 300 Chinesecities’ competitiveness in detail. It measures the development patterns of Chinesecities’ competitiveness as a whole, as well as the gap between cities’ statusand their ideal state in related aspects. The Report is an important andvaluable reference for decision-making and studies of governments at alllevels, especially municipal government departments, enterprises at home andabroad, related research institutions as well as the public.

Conference Agenda of China Urban CompetitivenessReport（2014） Release Ceremony

Location：1^st Lecture Hall at Chinese Academy of SocialScience(CASS)

Time：9:00 a.m. on May 9，2014

Leaders and Experts Presenting at the ChinaUrban Competitiveness Report（2014）Release Ceremony as Invited

Li Peilin, Deputy President of CASS                      

Niu Wenyuan, Counselor of the State Council and Researcher of Chinese Academy of Sciences                              

Gao Peiyong,Directorof Institute of Finance and Trade Economics at CASS

Li Shantong,Directorof Development Research Centerof the State Council

Lu Qinyi, Director of Anhui Academyof Social Sciences

Zhang Haohan,Chairmanof Jiangsu SocialScience Association      

Zhang Bing，Chief Planner of China Academy of Urban Planning and Design  

XiaoJincheng,Director of Institute of Spatial Planning & Regional Economy of NationalDevelopment and Reform Commission

XieShouguang, President of Social Sciences Academic Press

Ni Pengfei, Director of Center forCity and Competitiveness of Chinese Academy of SocialSciences

Li Xinyu, Director of Exchange Center for International FriendshipCities of Chinese People's Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries

Xing Jun, Director of Institute of Contemporary Anhuiof Auhui Academy of Social Sciences

YangJianzhong, Secretary of the Party Working Committee of Nantong Binhai Industrial Park

Shi Hongjie, Director ofAdministrative Committee of Nantong Binhai Industrial  Park

Members of City Competitiveness Research Group of Chinese Academy of Social Sciences