Hangzhou in East China's Zhejiang province topped a recent Economist Intelligence Unit ranking of Chinese cities with the greatest economic growth potential in the next few years, local media reported on Sept 10.

All the cities in the top 10 are in eastern and southern China, except for Beijing, which ranked sixth after Hangzhou, Shenzhen, Guangzhou, Shanghai and Zhuhai. Suzhou, Hefei, Nanjing and Ningbo rounded up the list.

The EIU said "Hangzhou (Zhejiang), and Nanjing and Suzhou (both Jiangsu) will benefit from the central government's expected innovation and productivity drive under the 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-25), as they have attracted large inflows of skilled workers."

In the first half of 2021, Hangzhou companies offered an average annual salary of 204,300 yuan ($31,544) to job seekers, according to a survey released by China's recruitment website Liepin in August.

The figure, which was calculated based on H1 statistics, was higher than that of Guangzhou and placed Hangzhou in fourth place among Chinese cities in terms of average annual salary in H1.

According to the survey, a growing number of skilled workers and new graduates are flocking to Hangzhou, instead of Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou.

With a strong talent base, these cities will play an important role in China's transition to a more technology-driven growth model, said the EIU.

Businesspeople from the Netherlands attend the International E-Business Expo in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province. [Photo by Li Zhong/For China Daily]