This City Was Picked As Best For Business in China

By Bryan Grogan

It’s official folks, Shenzhen is the best city in China for doing business. That’s according to a new report by the Academy of Greater Bay Area Studies, based in Guangzhou, that was released on Monday, December 3.

A series of end of year lists have been coming thick and fast over the previous few months, with the four tier-one cities fighting for supremacy. In this current iteration of the 'List War', Shenzhen has come up trumps in terms of business environment. 

Shenzhen moved up two spots from their 2017 position, from third place to first, overtaking near-neighbor Guangzhou, who fell into third place from the top position in 2017. 

Rounding out the top five were Shanghai in second place, Guangzhou, Beijing and then Chongqing, while Chengdu, Nanjing, Hangzhou, Changsha and Wuhan made up the rest of the top ten cities in the country for doing business. The top ten cities for business environment in order are:

• Shenzhen

• Shanghai

• Guangzhou

• Beijing

• Chongqing

• Chengdu

• Nanjing

• Hangzhou

• Changsha

• Wuhan

The study judged 35 Chinese cities' business environment based on six major factors: soft environment, infrastructure, business cost, market environment, social services and ecological environment. 

READ MORE: Forbes China Picked This City as the #1 Place to Live in the PRC

One area in which Shenzhen blew the competition away was the number of market entities in the city, with a staggering 3.06 million businesses, making it the only city in China to surpass 3 million in that category. 

Elsewhere, Shenzhen performed well in the number of permanent residents in the city, with a growth rate of 4.59 percent according to Shenzhen Daily. The number of market entities per 1,000 people in Shenzhen also reached 244, which is more than double that of Shanghai and Beijing. 

According to Philippine Daily Inquirer, part of the reason for Guangzhou's fall from first to third place could be attributed to certain changes that the city has undergone in the past year, such as an increase in land prices in the city, as it sits in lowly 32nd spot on the business cost index. 

Rather surprisingly, Changsha, the capital of Hunan Province, came in at ninth place on the index, thanks to its growing number of market entities and a significant growth in permanent population. 

Perhaps Shenzhen business environment success makes up for its poor showing on a recent study into the happiest cities in China, although, as the saying goes, all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. 

READ MORE: Happy? You Should Be If You Live in One of These 10 Chinese Cities

[Cover image via Pixabay]

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