Beijing and Shanghai ranked in the top 10 of 33 cities in the Asia-Pacific region in knowledge competitiveness, a recent report said.

The Asia-Pacific Knowledge Competitiveness Index for 2013 was compiled by the Antai College of Economics and Management of Shanghai Jiao Tong University.

In this year's report, Beijing and Shanghai, 2 of 13 cities in China, ranked fifth and eighth. It is the first time Shanghai has risen into the top 10, having been in 11th place in 2012. The country's capital ranked 10th last year.

The top three places were occupied by Tokyo, Japan; Ulsan, South Korea; and Osaka, Japan.

"The index mainly reflects a city's capability to transform its knowledge power into productivity and wealth. From this year's report, we can see that some emerging economies in the Asia-Pacific region are surging forward with good momentum," said Luo Shougui, a professor at the Antai College of Economics and Management, who compiled the index.