A report released by the Council for Industrial and Commercial Development yesterday placed Taipei first out of 44 cities in the Greater Chinese region in terms of competitiveness.
The report by Chinese-language business monthly Global Views, evaluated the competitiveness of 44 cities, including five in Taiwan and 37 in China, Hong Kong and Macao, aiming to provide a reference for the government and companies when making policy and investment decisions.
The evaluation takes into account three major areas -- market and consumption, industries and globalization and government and infrastructure -- each category has several sub-indexes.
Apart from the market and consumption category, where Dongguan in China's Guangdong Province got the top grade, Taipei took the first position in the two other indexes with a total score of 70.73 points, followed by Guangzhou with 65.52, Beijing with 65.22, Hong Kong with 64.78, and Shanghai with 64.44.
"Taipei scored the highest grade because the city is Taiwan's political, economic, educational and cultural center, and therefore enjoys a plentiful variety of resources," said Steve Lin (
Other cities in the region tend to focus on individual functions, Lin said. For example, Hong Kong is known as a financial hub, while Beijing is China's political center, he said.
The other cities in Taiwan: Taichung, Kaohsiung, Hsinchu and Tainan, also scored well when compared to their Chinese counterparts, and secured t9th, 10th, 11th and 12th positions respectively, according to the report.
But Taipei's edge may soon be lost, when considering the development of China's major cities, he said.
Taiwan will find it hard to beat China in market and consumption as China has more land and a huge population, Lin said.
In government and infrastructure, China is also catching up and will outpace Taiwan very soon, he said.
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