Move over Hong Kong, here comes... Chengdu?
What does the far-inland provincial capital of Chengdu have on cosmopolitan and financial centres such as Hong Kong and Shanghai?
What does the far-inland provincial capital of Chengdu have on cosmopolitan and financial centres such as Hong Kong and Shanghai?
A lot, when it comes to growth in jobs and income, according to a report on Asia's fastest-growing and most dynamic cities, released by United States-based think tank Milken Institute.
Mainland Chinese cities took six of the top 10 spots in the report. Shenzhen and Guangzhou took the first and second places, respectively. Chengdu and Tianjin grabbed the third and fourth spots while national capital Beijing came in sixth.
The report, the Milken Institute's first ever for the Asia region, is not a mark against the financial prowess or cultural standing of the cities.
On the contrary, it explicitly did not factor in quality of life but rather took a reading on four metrics over two set periods of time that the institute said reflect dynamism in urban economies; namely job growth, income growth, growth in high-value-added industries and per capita household income.
"Just being a key financial centre doesn't mean you're going to rank very high on something like job growth," Minoli Ratnatunga, one of the authors of the report, told the .
What Chengdu has over Shanghai and Hong Kong is new jobs - a lot of them, and rapidly increasing in numbers.
The southwestern Chinese metropolis of more than 10 million people scored No1 out of the 24 cities rated for growth in jobs between 2008 and 2013. During the five-year period, jobs grew by 30 per cent. Hong Kong ranked in 12th place during the same period and Shanghai came in at No17.
Chengdu also took first place in income growth and high-value-added industry growth for the time period. Incomes grew by nearly 90 per cent and high-value-added industries grew by 122 per cent.
Since 2005, the city has carved out a spot in high-end manufacturing. Several major technology and transport companies have set up manufacturing bases there, earning it the reputation as China's hi-tech hub in the west.
"If our evaluation criteria were applied to all major cities in the world, it is quite possible that Chengdu would lead in several," the report said.
Hong Kong scored close to last in growing high-value-added industries between 2008 and 2013.
Chengdu's per capita income ranking likely set it back from taking the top spot in the survey. The city was placed 19th while financial centres shone. Hong Kong came in sixth and Taipei ranked first in per capita income.
