Zhuhai is rated 5th nationwide in terms of economic vibrancy, according to the 18th Report on China's Urban Competitiveness, which was recently released by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and the Economic Daily.

Economic vibrancy refers to a city's capacity for economic growth, investment, and talent attraction. The report assesses the vitality of 291 domestic cities in terms of business convenience, intellectual property rights protection, proportion of youth talents, economic growth rate, and labor productivity.

Contributing to an outstanding performance, Zhuhai brought in 138,000 talents from 2017 to September with an incentive introduction mechanism. The net talent influx rate and growth rate of permanent population have led in Guangdong Province during the past two years.

Vibrant scientific research [Photo courtesy WeChat account: zhuhaifabu]

The city was home to 2,203 hi-tech enterprises in 2019. Local R&D expenditure accounted for 3.15 percent of the city's GDP, and the ownership of invention patents reached 78.58 per 10,000 persons. The figures were 346, 2.64 percent, and 22.5 per 10,000 persons respectively back in 2015.

In addition, Zhuhai has streamlined administrative procedures for businesses. Many details can now be completed at a single service window, online, or ever across borders with fewer required documents and in a shorter time. 

The improved business environment and efficient services have attracted numerous major industrial projects to Zhuhai. Five 100-billion-yuan ($15-billlion) industrial clusters centered on emerging industries including integrated circuits, biomedicine, new materials, new energy, and high-end printing equipment are taking shape.

Despite the COVID-19 pandemic, Zhuhai recorded a GDP of 250.85 billion yuan ($38 billion) in the first three quarters of 2020 with an upturn year-on-year increase of 0.6 percent.

In addition to economic vibrancy, the report also ranked Zhuhai 11th in environmental resilience, 16th in hard business environment, 23rd in soft business environment, 24th in overall economic competitiveness, and 28th in sustainable competitiveness among the nine dimensions being rated.

Other cities on the Top 10 list in terms of economic vibrancy are Shenzhen, Beijing, Guangzhou, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Nanjing, Hangzhou, Suzhou, and Xiamen.