Hangzhou and Wuhan jump in rankings of best-performing Chinese cities, report says

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04/09/2024 09:58

By Ellen Zhang and Ryan Woo
       BEIJING, Sept 4 (Reuters) - The city of Hangzhou in
eastern China with its tech focus is the country's
best-performing big city, while Wuhan in central China has also
made great strides to become the second-best, according to
updated rankings by an independent U.S. think tank.
    Hangzhou, the capital of China's affluent Zhejiang province
and home to e-commerce giant Alibaba Group  9988.HK , jumped
seven spots to become the top performer among first and
second-tier cities, according to the Milken Institute's
best-performing cities China 2023-2024 index report released on
Tuesday.
    The city, also home to gaming company NetEase  9999.HK  and
Geely Auto  0175.HK , has heavily invested in science and
technology, the report said. 
    The think tank also looks at metrics like employment,
average wages and gross regional product.  
    Wuhan soared 27 spots to take the No.2 place, with the
report noting it has diversified its economy beyond
manufacturing by focusing on optoelectronic information science
and engineering, biomedicine, new energy and high-tech services.
    Directly behind Wuhan were Jinan, Changsha, Chengdu,
Nanchang and Hefei - all inland cities that the central
government is hoping will provide new economic momentum.
    They have increased investments in developing high-tech
products and services and have moved away from traditional
sources of growth such as investment in infrastructure and
polluting heavy industry.
    "When I looked at some of the best performing cities five
years ago, they were all along the coastal regions...now it's
starting to move into the central region a little bit," said
Perry Wong, managing director of research at the Milken
Institute and author of the report.
    The shift is in line with China's push to grow "new
productive forces" - a phrase coined by President Xi Jinping
last year as he emphasised that innovation should drive economic
growth.

 (Reporting by Ellen Zhang and Ryan Woo; Editing by Edwina
Gibbs)
 ((Ellen.Zhang@thomsonreuters.com;))