Ranking | HK most ‘sustainable’ among Chinese cities in urban competitiveness

Macau is included among the world’s 200 most competitive urban districts

The latest report on global urban competitiveness has shown that Hong Kong is still the best-performing city in the greater China region, ranking 11th in economic competitiveness and 6th in sustainable competitiveness. Macau is included among the world’s 200 most competitive urban districts as are 38 other Chinese cities, according to the South China Morning Post (SCMP), though the MSAR’s precise ranking was not mentioned.

A collaboration between the United Nations Human Settlements Program and the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS), the report examines global urban competitiveness using an index that includes components such as social innovation, global connection, human resources, economic vitality and infrastructure.

The findings of the report were presented at the International Conference of New Global Cities in the mainland city of Nanjing yesterday.

In total, 40 Chinese cities were included in the ranking of the 200 most competitive urban areas, including the two special administrative regions and Taipei.

The mainland city of Shenzhen topped the economic competitiveness index among Chinese cities in 5th position worldwide, while Hong Kong trailed in 11th place. But the Hong Kong SAR was the strongest Chinese city in terms of sustainable competitiveness, in 6th place globally.

Last year, Shenzhen’s gross domestic product amounted to 2.24 trillion yuan (USD323 billion), only marginally behind Hong Kong’s economy. That gap looks set to close in the next few years, with the mainland city growing more than twice as fast as its semi-autonomous neighbor.

According to the ranking, however, Shenzhen has a lot of catch- up to do if it wants to overtake Hong Kong in terms of the sustainability competitiveness. The former fell in this year’s ranking to 48th place from 35th last year, while Hong Kong reached 6th place.

One of the authors of the report, Professor Ni Pengfei, director of the CASS Centre for City and Competitiveness, told the South China Morning Post that new measurements and adjusted weightings were mostly responsible for Shenzhen’s slip.

“We brought in new elements including the human resources potential this year and adopted a different weighting system,” he told the SCMP. “The new calculating system also uncovered the great development potential in Hong Kong. […] No mainland city can easily beat Hong Kong in the near future.”

However, notable mainland cities like Shanghai, Guangzhou and Beijing are improving. This year they ranked 28th, 59th and 27th place, respectively, in terms of sustainable competitiveness.

Meanwhile, in global terms, the highest-ranked competitive cities continued to be New York, Los Angeles, Singapore, Tokyo and London.

According to the SCMP, the study also found that China’s Greater Bay Area project – encompassing Hong Kong, Macau and nine cities of the Pearl River Delta area – was far from challenging the world’s wealthiest bay areas in Japan and the U.S.

It noted that, although the Greater Bay Area is growing fast, its base was far lower than its Japanese and North American rivals, meaning it would take some time to catch up.