Focus
'We're No ... 4?'
By Zhao Yanrong (China Daily)
Updated: 2010-05-07 08:00
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Beijing longs for global greatness, but it first needs to get past the competition at home
Beijing was ranked only fourth in the latest survey of Chinese urban competitiveness. World's fair host Shanghai was one spot ahead for the bronze position in a report that stressed the good and bad, including Beijing's paltry showing in social equality.
The annual report on urban competitiveness 2010, which investigated almost 300 cities in China, was released by the Social Sciences Academy Press on April 26.
Following last year's results, the top five cities, in order, are Hong Kong, Shenzhen, Shanghai, Beijing and Taipei.
The research team announced that Beijing is one of the cities with highest potential of becoming an international metropolitan city in the future.
"Under the rapid change of world structure and the rise of China, Beijing, the capital, has broad resource connections at home and abroad," the report said.
As many as 94 of China's top 500 companies are based in Beijing, and 161 of the world's top 500 enterprises have offices in the capital.
Personal wealth is a strong spot for Beijing, which is home to 39 of the richest Chinese 400 list by Forbes magazine last year. Shanghai is home to 45 billionaires from the list
Moreover, the capital follows Hong Kong and Shanghai in the 1 trillion GDP club. Per-capita gross domestic product has broken the $10,000 mark, one standard for building a world city.
"Beijing is China's political center. It has a much obvious advantage in providing efficient information and public services for all kinds of companies and enterprises," the survey said.
Beijing was also evaluated as the city with best living environment among 56 major cities in China.
The living environment category considers many conditions, such as quality of life, shopping, commutes, education, health care system, entertainment and ecology.
According to the survey, Beijing had the best traffic facilities in China, even better than Hong Kong and Shanghai.
There are up to 10 subway lines spanning 230 km of track and carrying more than 5 million passengers everyday in Beijing.
As many as 14,323 buses are running in Beijing, and most are fueled by clean energy sources. The figure is close to the number of buses in top cities in developed countries.
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However, Beijing and Shanghai failed to breach the top 10 cities with a better social environment, which encompasses social equality, social insurance and social integration.
"There are big gaps between urban and rural areas," in social welfare programs, the report said.
In fact, in the social equality subcategory the capital's performance was less than stellar. Beijing was only ranked 55th, trailing the other municipalities of Tianjin, Shanghai and Chongqing.
The report suggests young graduates and entrepreneurs, especially migrant workers, consider the elements when deciding where to live.
Still, the report suggests that while Beijing has much work to do, it has made solid strides toward improvement.
"The development strategy from the municipal government is realistic and lofty," the survey said, noting the capital has strong potential to keep its economic engine humming.
"An integrated system has not been set in the Bohai economic circle thus there is a large space for Beijing's development," the report said.
