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19 Sep, 2015

Best-performing cities in China 2015

By Jin Chen

Beijing, (People’s Daily Online), September 16, 2015 – Chengdu has the most successful economy in cities on the Chinese mainland, a US-based think tank has concluded after its assessment of such factors as job growth, foreign investment and high-value-added industries.

Shanghai and Tianjin rank the second and third respectively, while Beijing only ranks 13th in the list by Milken Institute, according to a report by the website of South China Morning Post.

Chengdu, capital of Sichuan province, stands out for its “human capital, central government’s support, inherent industries in high-end aerospace and aircraft design, and the recently developed electronics manufacturing field”, according to the Institute.

The research puts forward two kinds of development patterns of cities on the mainland. Cities like Tianjin and Shanghai witness urbanization, industrial clustering and infrastructure investment bolstering larger regional economies.

However, the recent slowdown in economic growth “suggests that a new approach centering on technology, personal investment and consumption” will replace the previous strategy.

This is the first time Milken Institute has made a ranking for mainland cities. It assessed 266 cities at the prefecture level and above and divided them into two categories – 34 first and second-tier cities, and the rest are third-tier cities.

Other cities with good performance are Dalian in Liaoning province, Nanjing in Jiangsu province, Hefei in Anhui province, Xiamen in Fujian province and Changchun in Jilin province.

Chongqing ranks 9th in the list, along with Chengdu, as the only inland cities in the top 10.

Shenzhen, ranking 10th, has developed into China’s information technology center from a low-cost manufacturing base.

In the ranking of third-tier cities, seven of the top 10 are cities in Jiangsu province, with Suzhou on top.

A developed transportation network including airports, highways and high-speed rail lines connecting the cities in the Yangtze River Delta plays a crucial role in the economic development of Jiangsu province.

The Institute released the “Best-performing cities in China 2015” report in Beijing on Monday.