2005-2006

Blue Book of Urban Competitiveness 2006: Annual Report on Urban Competitiveness No.4 is finished and published. With Professor Ni Pengfei being the principal, this report is jointly finished cooperatively by experts in the field of city competitiveness from the mainland, Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan for the first time, including nearly one hundred experts from famous universities such as Nankai University, Tsinghua University, Peking University, the Chinese University of Hong Kong, University of Macau, Taiwan Chengchi University and so on.

Nine cities in Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan are included simultaneously in the research system of the report for the first time. The largest scale of abstraction of brands up till now is illustrated in the report. That is, the core competitiveness of each two hundred cities in China is abstracted into brands, and the structure criteria which is able to reflect scientific and technological innovation is also added into the visible criterion of city competitiveness for the first time. The theme of 2006 report is “housing market: the barometer of cities in China”. Meanwhile it makes a comparative analysis of 100 countries or regions and 15 city-agglomerations which forms the basis of city competitiveness.

The report made a measurement and comparison of comprehensive competitiveness among China's 200 cities. The top 20 cities are Hong Kong, Taipei, Shanghai, Beijing, Shenzhen, Guangzhou, Kaohsiung, Macau, Hsinchu, Keelung, Hangzhou, Ningbo, Suzhou, Tainan, Tianjin , Xiamen, Dalian, Wuxi, Shenyang, Qingdao.

Table: Top 20 cities in urban competitiveness

Findings:

The overall positions of cities arranging according to their competitiveness are very clear. Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan are of the most competitive, which are followed by eastern coastal area, the central area, the northeast and the western regions. And within the eastern coastal area, urban competitiveness varies. From the top to the last, the five regions are the Yangtze Delta, the Pearl River Delta, Shandong Peninsula, the western bank of Taiwan Strait and Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei area. Besides, the competition situation is also changing quickly. The competitiveness of China’s inland cities increases rapidly, while development in Taiwan slows down. The competitiveness of cities in the central part, northeastern part and western part surges, yet generally speaking, the gap between east and west, south and north is becoming wider.

Cities’ ranking fluctuates in the short term. Under the influence of the overheated real estate market and the macro-control actions, the competitiveness of certain cities in the Yangtze Delta, the Pearl River Delta and so on, which rely on high investment and high real estate price, decreases a little bit.

The rankings of competitiveness in different regions are also different. Eastern cities that once developed fast in manufacturing are now confronted with difficulties in resources, essential elements and technology; leading cities in the Northeastern, central and western regions of China, such as Wuhan, Shenyang, Changsha, Chengdu, Chongqing and other cities, begin to show their comprehensive advantages. Yet small and medium-sized cities are still lagging behind.

This report has also analyzed 60 most comprehensively competitive cities from the perspective of the indices of 8 sub-item competitiveness:

(1) Top 20 cities according to talent competitiveness: Hong Kong, Taipei, Kaohsiung, Hsinchu, Shanghai, Taichung, Beijing, Shenzhen, Guangzhou, Keelung, Wuxi, Tainan, Ningbo, Hangzhou, Wuhan, Suzhou, Shenyang, Zhuhai , Wenzhou, Zhongshan.

(2) Top 20 cities according to corporation competitiveness: Hong Kong, Kaohsiung, Taipei, Taichung, Hsinchu, Foshan, Shenzhen, Tainan, Guangzhou, Keelung, Daqing, Xiamen, Suzhou, Shanghai, Zhongshan, Zhuhai, Ningbo, Changzhou , Wuhu, Qingdao.

(3) Top 20 cities according to industrial competitiveness: Beijing, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Shenzhen, Guangzhou, Chongqing, Tianjin, Chengdu, Changsha, Taipei, Haikou, Wuhan, Fuzhou, Hangzhou, Zhengzhou, Taizhou, Jinan, Nanchang , Kaohsiung, Xi'an.

(4) Top 20 cities according to public sector competitiveness: Taipei, Hong Kong, Kaohsiung, Taichung, Shanghai, Taiwan, Beijing, Hsinchu, Keelung, Guangzhou, Xiamen, , Shenzhen, Zhuhai, Foshan, Suzhou, Daqing, Nanchang, Wuhan , Hangzhou, Dalian.

(5) Top 20 cities according to living environment competitiveness: Taipei, Shenzhen, Kaohsiung, Hong Kong, Beijing, Hsinchu, Keelung, Shanghai, Taichung, Guangzhou, Macau, Taiwan, Zhuhai, Xiamen, Hangzhou, Kunming, Dalian, Chengdu , Changsha, Zhongshan.

(6) Top 20 cities according to business environment competitiveness: Hong Kong, Guangzhou, Kaohsiung, Shanghai, Wuxi, Taipei, Zhuhai, Suzhou, Xiamen, Shenzhen, Taichung, Ningbo, Qingdao, Chengdu, Weihai, Shaoxing, Tainan, Dalian , Hangzhou, Yangzhou.

(7) Top 20 cities according to innovative competitiveness: Hong Kong, Taipei, Kaohsiung, Shenzhen, Hsinchu, Xiamen, Shanghai, Beijing, Zhuhai, Wuxi, Guangzhou, Wuhan, Foshan, Hangzhou, Taichung, Suzhou, Chengdu, Tainan , Qingdao, Dalian.

(8) Top 20 cities according to social environment competitiveness: Hong Kong, Tainan, Keelung, Hsinchu, Taichung, Kaohsiung, Taipei, Wuxi, Yangzhou, Macau, Nantong, Wuhu, Weihai and Zhuhai, Shaoxing, Shenyang, Dalian, Xuzhou , Yantai, Nanchang.

As usual, this annual report employed the fuzzy graph approach to analyze how each kind of competitiveness contributes to the comprehensive competitiveness. It is showed that the most important factors affecting urban competitiveness are talents and citizens’ qualities, followed by industries; based on 54-questions questionnaire surveys of 6000 citizens in 60 cities, the report pointed out that the worst five aspects are the public's satisfaction with medical services, the destruction of the equality of opportunities by urban privileges, the gap between urban and rural areas in terms of social security and public services, and the properness of medical fees.

Policy Suggestions: in this new era, under the guidance of the concept of scientific development, we should put forward regional policies which put regional competitiveness at the central position, which help the eastern regions open to the world and build up strong international competitiveness, which provide aids to the western regions and improve its competitiveness, and which strengthen the support for medium-sized cities to raise competitiveness and their ability to motivate other cities.

From now on, cities should concentrate on the following affairs: enhancing public services, such as health care, education, housing condition, transportation, etc.; improving the environment people live in and raise citizens’ quality; improving the business environment and developing modern service industry, and enhancing the urban function, enlarging the service area; create a kind of innovative atmosphere, establishing national or regional bases and leading organizations for independent innovation in order to enable our country to compete with other countries, and promoting the development of the suburban area and countryside; speeding up the construction of public service system, social security system and civilization and culture construction,; building up a harmonious and inhabitable homeland.

The report makes a comparison of 15 urban agglomerations in terms of urban function. From the best to the worst, the 15 urban agglomerations are the Yangtze Delta agglomeration, the Pearl River Delta agglomeration, Beijing- Tianjing-Hebei agglomeration, peninsula agglomeration, the agglomeration in the middle and southern part of Liaoning, the agglomeration on the western bank of Taiwan Strait, the central China agglomeration, Xuzhou agglomeration, Wuhan agglomeration, Chengyu agglomeration, Changzhutan agglomeration, Harbin agglomeration, Guanzhou agglomeration, Changchun agglomeration and Hefei agglomeration. 

Using its own framework and methods, the report compared the competitiveness of 100 countries and regions around the world, and it found out the top ten countries and regions are the United States, Germany, Japan, Great Britain, France, the Netherlands, Ireland, Canada, Italy, and Belgium. Mainland China ranks 34; Hong Kong ranks 11. It pointed out China’s unique advantages, inevitable disadvantages, and its intense competitive environment. Finally it put forward win-win strategies to make its way in such fierce competition.

The report found that: a city with a large scale of real estate industry is usually more competitive; the real estate prices are often higher in cities that are more competitive, but if the prices rise too high, it will also become a disadvantage of the improvement of its competitiveness.

The report has invent the standards to judge whether a real estate market is healthy or not, and found out that in 35 large and medium-sized cities, real estate markets are mostly unhealthy. Only 7 markets are generally healthy, while 21 unhealthy, and 7 seriously unhealthy.

Through the comprehensive social and economic evaluation and measurement of 50 sample cities, this report get the investment potential of residential, commercial and industrial real estate. By investigating into the freedom degree of real estate of 35 large and medium-sized cities on the mainland, it is found that the 35 important cities have basically let the price of its real estate fluctuated freely according to market demand and supply, but they are still far away from complete free market.

The report pointed out that the real estate markets in certain cities have the following problems. In the labor market, workers cannot get wages on time. In the land market, there is illegal acquisition of land. In the sales market, all we see is disorder. In financial markets, invisible dangers are in disguise. The intermediary market is full of frauds. The rental market develops slowly. The property market is full of disputes. And in the macro-market, bubble economy lurks.

The report also pointed out that real estate has defects of different degrees in all the six major systems: official market is not standardized, in which exists a high proportion of underground market transactions; the legal system is not sound, and the enforcement of laws is not accountable; the supervision system is not appropriate, and the implementation is not effective; the housing security is not perfect, and the public services is not in place; taxes and fees structure is irrational, and the types of taxes and fees are not simple or clear; the regulatory measures are not effective, and the regulatory departments do not cooperate with each other.

In order to make sure that real estate develops healthily, the above 6 problems must be addressed. The report provided the following solutions: expand and regulate the official market, establish an organic and integrated market system, promote free market of the real estate, establish and improve a reliable legal system, reform the real estate supervision institutions, establish a smooth and effective supervision system, improve the government’s role in the economy, ameliorate the housing social security system, speed up the introduction of property tax, establish a fair and reasonable taxes and fees system, establish coordinating bodies for real estate policies, and establish a unified and flexible regulatory system.