With the business environment rated 15th out of nearly 300 prefecture-level cities, Zhuhai performs well in all other indicators measured by the Greater Bay Area and 21st Century Economic research institutes.

The 2020 Business Environment Report on 296 Chinese Prefecture-Level Cities or Above was released Dec 21. It assesses the lifecycle of local enterprises, investment attractiveness, high-quality development, market supervision, entrepreneurship, ecology, and sci-tech innovation based on figures from statistical yearbooks and multiple big-data enterprises.

Prosperous Hengqin New Area [Photo courtesy Guanhai App]

The overall score for business environment is based on six first-grade indexes, of which soft environment accounts for 25 percent, market volume and ecology each take 20 percent, infrastructure 15 percent, and social service and cost of business each 10 percent. Zhuhai is 8th in soft environment, which evaluates talent and investment attractiveness, innovation vibrancy, and market supervision.

In addition, the city is first in growth of permanent population, third in patent ownership per 10,000 persons, fourth in ecological environment, and sixth in per capital GDP.

Shenzhen, Shanghai, Beijing, Guangzhou, Chongqing, Chengdu, Hangzhou, Nanjing, Changsha, and Wuhan are the top 10 in the business environment index, whereas Zhuhai, Suzhou, Dongguan, Quanzhou, Foshan, Jiaxing, and Huzhou are cited for outstanding performance.

The report urges Zhuhai, Zhongshan, and Jiangmen cities in Guangdong Province to expand in economic scale and become central cities in their regional economies.