On 29th of October 2015, the press conference of 2015 Competitiveness Ranking of China’s Cities: From the Perspective of Listed Companies was jointly hosted by Donghai Securities, SUFE COB and SUFE Key Financial Lab. Prof. Wang Shaofei, the Assistant Dean and Director of Case Center of SUFE COB, and Wu Xulei, Deputy Director of Institute of Research of Donghai Securities, attended and addressed the press conference. Wang Peng, a researcher from Donghai Securities announced the release of the Ranking. Nearly 20 local authoritative media covered the event.

Against the backdrop of “Superimposition of the Three Periods” (the period of dealing with slowdown in economic growth, of making difficult structural adjustments, and of absorbing the effects of previous economic stimulus policies), China’s economy in 2015 is facing downward pressure and industries are divided into different prosperity levels to some extent. Cities in Hubei Province and Shaanxi Province enter the list of the Comprehensive Competitiveness Ranking. According to the statistics of this year and past years, the structure of three echelons of cities has been basically formed: the first-tier is represented by east region cities like Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou followed by cities in the middle region such as in Hubei Province and Shaanxi Province, representing the second tier. And the third tier is represented by cities in Yunnan, Guangxi and Gansu of the west region.  

The changes showed by the 2015 Competitiveness Ranking of China’s Cities reflect the current situation where China is experiencing economic transformation and structural adjustment. It is now difficult for cities that mainly rely on traditional industries such as steel and cement to return to the list of competitive cities, while cities with a high proportion of emerging industries like pharmaceutical industry, consumer industry, environmental protection and media industry begin to stand out in the list.