The latest report released by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences on competitiveness of cities, has placed Macau at ninth, according to a note published this week by the Macau University of Science and Technology.
The release of the Chinese Urban Competitiveness Report marks the 14th anniversary of the publication. The report includes 294 cites, 287 of which are from mainland, five from Taiwan and two corresponding to SARs.
Macau excels in terms of its overall efficiency in competitiveness, ranking first in this category. In other categories, Macau ranks number 36 in livability, 32 in business attraction, and five in sustainable development.
In terms of GDP per capita, the report also shows that Macau is still unsurpassed. However the region sits at 220 place in terms of “incremental competitiveness index”. This contradiction, explained Liu Cheng Kun, associate professor at MUST, is due to the recent gaming slowdown.
“Macau’s industry is relatively simple, […] the whole economy is transitioning to a period of deep adjustments,” said Liu, according to whom the decline in both livability and business attraction are a consequence of the increasing population in the area, including tourists.
“Macau’s capability is under pressure. Housing prices dropped slightly but are still high compared to people’s incomes. In addition, SMEs struggle to move forward since the gaming industry plummeted,” Liu explained.
In terms of knowledge and information competitiveness, Macau ranks 39 and 17, respectively. Liu stated that revenues resulting from government investment in science, technology and education are low. “From a global perspective, cites with relatively high scores in these two previously mentioned categories rank high in overall competitiveness,” noted Liu. However, Liu argued that the Chinese central government has been consistently supporting Macau and will keep doing so as usual, which is a major asset for the city.
Hong Kong conceded first place to Shenzhen for the second year in a row. Staff reporter
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