(Bloomberg) -- Chengdu, the capital of China’s southwestern province Sichuan, overtook technology hub Shenzhen to top the Milken Institute’s 2019 index of the nation’s best-performing cities.
This is the third time that Chengdu, best known internationally for its pandas, has been ranked first since the list began in 2015. The index incorporated nine indicators for the period up to 2017, including employment and wage growth, the growth in gross regional product per-capita, and foreign direct investment. Chengdu’s five-year job growth was the highest among the first and second tier cities at almost 180%.
In recent years, Chengdu has become an attractive destination for young, educated workers seeking a cheaper location as rents rise in Beijing and Shanghai. Technology companies have set up service centers in the manufacturing hub, and start-ups have also gravitated toward its laid-back and progressive culture.
The data used in this year’s Milken index doesn’t include 2018, when a protracted trade war with the U.S. began. The report said the conflict “calls into question whether China’s innovation-focused industrial policy can successfully lead to an upgrade of the country’s manufacturing capacity.” Places such as Shenzhen, a high-tech metropolis bordering Hong Kong, and Suzhou, an industrial hub in the southeastern Jiangsu province, could experience a short-term negative economic impact, it said.
Beijing rose nine places to rank third among the country’s bigger cities, bolstered by an influx of investment into its eastern Tongzhou district, which is being developed into another city center that will host the municipal government, hospitals and some universities. Lanzhou, at the center of China’s belt and road initiative, came in fourth and Henan capital Zhengzhou was fifth.
Dongguan, Nantong, Zhuhai, Taizhou and Dazhou were the top five third-tier cities, according to the index.
To contact Bloomberg News staff for this story: Sharon Chen in Beijing at schen462@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: John Liu at jliu42@bloomberg.net, James Mayger
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