Mainland cities leapfrog HK

Hong Kong has been leapfrogged by Guangzhou, Shenzhen and a few second-tier cities to place ninth in a ranking of 42 Chinese cities with regional opportunities, while the SAR topped the others for resilience to absorb shocks and stresses, mainland research shows.

Hong Kong, which has been hard hit by the social unrest last year and three waves of coronavirus infections, dropped six places in 2020 from a year before, when the city and Macau were added into the Cities of Opportunity list by the China Development Research Foundation, a public foundation under the State Council, and accounting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers.

The cities were weighed in 10 dimensions, from economic growth to social services, infrastructure to industrial structure, resident sentiment to investor concerns, and the natural environment, business environment, and urban impact, the report said.

Their resilience, which was included in the dimensions this year for the first time, was measured on eight factors, including medical facilities, disaster prevention and control, and financial input in public security.

Hong Kong dropped from 14th a year ago to 19th in terms of intellectual capital and innovation, which was measured by five factors from the perspective of education and the level of educational attainment of the employed population, as well as the innovation investment and potential of the city.

The SAR ranked third in technical maturity, while it was 18th for transport and urban planning, rising from 35th last year.

Jin Jun, China M&A consulting leader at PwC China, said the drop of Hong Kong's position on the list was not due to the city's development itself but was mainly because of the rapid growth of the newcomers to mainland tier-one cities.

Macau was out of the top 10 in comprehensive ranking in the two years but was placed third for resilience in 2020, the report showed.

Hangzhou, which was sixth last year, was surpassed by Chengdu and Nanjing this year. The ranking of central and western cities, led by Zhengzhou, Henan province, and Chengdu, Sichuan province, improved because of regional economic integration.

Beijing and Shanghai maintained their positions at the top and second for a third consecutive year. The two were added to the list in 2018.

The two cities, as well as Guangzhou and Shenzhen, have consolidated their positions as China's main tier-one cities in size and quality of development, and have also had an impact on the world, Jin said.

Fang Jin, secretary general of the foundation, said big cities have become the major battlefield in the fight against the coronavirus pandemic this year, where better infrastructure, wider use of technology, effective community management, a wider role of social organizations, and stronger public awareness played a crucial role.