PricewaterhouseCoopers report: Beijing ranks first in economic influence in the world and Shanghai ranks fifth

PricewaterhouseCoopers report: Beijing ranks first in economic influence in the world and Shanghai ranks fifth PricewaterhouseCoopers today released a report comparing economic influence and gateway cities. Beijing and Shanghai have ranked among the world's major cities...

PricewaterhouseCoopers and the New York Partnership jointly released the "Cities of Opportunity 2012" research report today. Beijing and Shanghai have joined London, Paris and New York among the top five major cities in the world in terms of economic influence and gateway cities. In the 2012 ranking, Beijing surpassed other participating cities in terms of economic influence, including many historically important global cities, jumping from ninth to first.

Beijing ranks in the top five in a number of economic variables, including: second in the number of Fortune 500 headquarters, second only to Tokyo; third in GDP growth; third in foreign direct investment in terms of capital investment and fifth in terms of new projects; fourth in the number of financial and business services jobs, after Milan, Paris and London.

Shanghai ranks fifth in global economic influence, up from eighth last year, and ranks fourth in the gateway city indicator.

Gateway City is a new indicator category that measures a city's global connectivity and attractiveness based on a series of data variables. Relevant data include aircraft movements and total passenger flow, Shanghai ranks seventh on these two variables; there is also the number of hotel rooms, Shanghai is ahead of 26 other cities on this variable.

At the same time, Shanghai continues to maintain its advantage in attracting foreign direct investment, ranking first in terms of number of projects and investment amount, and ranking fourth in terms of real gross domestic product (GDP) growth rate.

The report stated that the established metropolises New York and London rely on their overall advantages to draw a watershed from other cities. Although New York narrowly beat London, it did not take the lead in any of the top ten economic indicators. Toronto finished third overall, showing good balance, but again with no individual wins. Paris and Stockholm ranked fourth and fifth.

Analysis that Beijing still has room for improvement to become a global urban giant

The report said that the balanced development of Shanghai and Beijing on a series of social and economic indicators shows that the two cities are ready to transform from simple rapid development to sustainable development.

> Wu Weijun, PwC China Public Policy and Regulatory Affairs Leader, said: "Beijing jumped to first place in the economic influence indicator and became a global city giant. The gateway city indicator ranked third. Specific variables include the convenience from the airport to the city center ranked first, the number of hotel rooms ranked second, and the total passenger flow ranked sixth in Asia. Ranking second and ranking fourth in terms of the number of international conferences it has hosted, Beijing has become a 'city of the world'. "

In addition, Beijing's highlights include: always paying attention to sustainable development, ranking first in affordable public transportation, the third cheapest city in terms of user costs, ranking seventh in terms of green space, and ranking eighth in waste recycling. In terms of financial and business services, Beijing’s employment ratio exceeds 30%, which means that 3 out of 10 working people in Beijing serve the financial and business services industry. This ratio is generally higher than that of cities such as Milan, Paris, London, San Francisco, and Chicago.

"Of course, we must also see Beijing's shortcomings, such as: Beijing ranks relatively low in several indicators such as intellectual capital and innovation, health, safety, public security, transportation and infrastructure. For example, the health security system ranks seventh, and there is still much room for improvement." Wu Weijun said.

Looking back on last year, Beijing ranked ninth in terms of economic influence

In the "City of Opportunity 2011" report, Beijing's economic influence ranked ninth among the world's major cities, and Shanghai ranked eighth.

In terms of foreign direct investment, Beijing ranks high in terms of total capital and number of new projects. At the same time, the number of headquarters of Fortune 500 companies in Beijing in 2011 was one place higher than in 2010, ranking second, indicating that Beijing's attraction to foreign investment continues to grow.

It can be seen from various indicators that through development in recent decades, Chinese cities have made solid progress in transportation and infrastructure construction and economic development. Beijing and Shanghai have been promoted to the world's first-class in these two indicators.

Data source

The "City of Opportunity" research published since 2007 is based on public data. The data sources mainly include three aspects: global multilateral development organizations, such as the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund; national statistical agencies, such as the British National Bureau of Statistics and the United States Census Bureau; and commercial data providers.