○Recently, the internationally renowned publishing organization Springer Nature released a supplement to Nature - Nature Index - Research Cities 2024, in which five Chinese cities were ranked among the top ten in the world, and Nanjing was ranked fifth in the world.
○After this fall, it seems to be entering the harvesting season of city rankings. Also in November, the much-anticipated new edition of the GaWC Global City Rankings was released, and the GaWC rankings of Chinese cities rose dramatically, with Nanjing ranking 75th and entering the world's BETA (second-tier) cities.
○The international consulting firm Kearney also released its 2024 Global Cities Index ranking report, in which NJ was ranked 83rd in the world, ten places ahead of the previous year.
Cities are the main battlefield of Chinese modernization, and the ranking of the list reveals the development and trend of the cities. Through a list and the figure of the city "playing the list", the direction of the city's forward movement can be clearly seen.01China's global city "hit list"
○There are more and more Chinese cities in the list of global cities, and their positions are getting more and more advanced.
Yan Yan, vice president of the Shanghai branch of the China Academy of Urban Planning and Design, has long been concerned about the development of urban planning, and according to the different focuses of the evaluation system, he divided the list of cities into three categories.
character used in Taiwan as a substitute for a real name (like "X" in English)The first category focuses on the performance of a city in a single area, and explores the city's strengths and characteristics in key dimensions such as scientific research and innovation, production and services, livability, and business attractiveness.
○The Nature Index, a global ranking of scientific cities released by Springer Nature Publishing Group, emphasizes the level of scientific research in cities. Contributions to scientific research papers in more than 100 high-quality journals are tracked by the Nature Index, and Nanjing is ranked third globally in terms of strength of papers in both physics and chemistry, with this year's global ranking advancing by one place over the previous year.
The Globalization and World Cities (GaWC) research network in the U.K. publishes a list of world cities that calculates the degree of network connectivity of each city based on the distribution of headquarter branches of high-end production services such as accounting, advertising, finance, law, management consulting, etc. The list emphasizes the modernization and globalization of the city's production services. The list emphasizes the modernization and globalization of a city's productive services sector.
○UN-HABITAT released a list of livable cities in Asia, and the dimension of the ranking is livability. The top 50 Asian cities are selected based on four dimensions: year-round combined climate comfort, superior education and healthcare, relatively well-developed economies, and relatively balanced prices and incomes.2024-2025 Nanjing is ranked 14th in Asia, after Guangzhou and Wuhan among mainland cities.
character used in Taiwan as a substitute for a real name (like "X" in English)The second type of list focuses on the current comprehensive strength of the city, and comprehensively assesses the current level of development of the city in economic, social, environmental and other aspects.It is represented by the Global Cities Index (GCI), which is released by A.T. Kearney in conjunction with top international scholars and think tank organizations. Cities are comprehensively ranked based on 31 indicators in five dimensions: business activities, human capital, information exchange, cultural experience, and political affairs. Located behind Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Hangzhou and Chengdu, Nanjing made the greatest progress among the 10 Chinese cities in the top 100 and achieved its highest ranking ever.
○The Top 500 World Cities and Top 100 Chinese Cities released by GYBrand, a domestic brand valuation and growth consulting firm, also fall into this category. It comprehensively analyzes multi-dimensional indicators such as economic strength, infrastructure, business environment, quality construction, residential life, international reputation, development potential, etc. to reflect the quality of city development. 2024 Nanjing ranked 72nd in the world, up 23 places from the previous year.
character used in Taiwan as a substitute for a real name (like "X" in English)The third category of the list focuses on the future-oriented development potential of the city, emphasizing the richness of the city's resources in terms of hardware construction, talent reserves, cultural attractiveness, ecological harmony and so on.Represented by the Cities of Opportunity, jointly released by the China Development Research Foundation and PricewaterhouseCoopers. Observation of Chinese cities based on 10 dimensions and 50 variables: intellectual capital, technology and innovation, regionally important cities, urban resilience, transportation and urban planning, sustainability, culture and life, economic impact, cost, and business-friendly environment. 2024 Nanjing is ranked as the 6th city on the mainland, with three of the dimensions, intellectual capital, transportation and urban planning, and culture and life, being in the top five.
character used in Taiwan as a substitute for a real name (like "X" in English)On balance, Nanjing has performed better overall in the above list in recent years. Its comprehensive strength and future development potential are outstanding, closely following the four first-tier cities, and on a par with Hangzhou and Chengdu. In the individual areas of scientific research and innovation, livability, production services and commercial appeal, Nanjing has stabilized in the second tier of the domestic market, and is deeply integrated into the integrated development pattern of the Yangtze River Delta, and together with other regional central cities, it has achieved a sustained improvement in the international rankings.
02A new window on the quality of urban economic development
○City lists try to reveal the driving forces of urban development, reflecting the visions of different organizations on urban development. In the past two years, the "National Big City Index Report" (hereinafter referred to as the "Big City Index") released by domestic organizations has attracted the media's attention. "The Index was first released in 2022, and this is the second time it has been released.
This year's "Big City Index" was jointly released by the Shenzhen Industrial Research Institute of Shanghai Jiao Tong University and the China Development Research Institute. According to the introduction, included in the ranking of the big city strong city for the year GDP total of 500 billion yuan above the city, in 2023 for 59 cities. China's big city strong city index calculation method is, 59 cities in the ranking of each indicator is added to the index value, the index value from low to high order.
○Shanghai Jiaotong University Antai School of Economics and Management professor, Shenzhen Industry Research Institute researcher Chen Xian introduced, China's big cities and strong cities index is a supplement and refinement of the city's GDP ranking, as the United Nations Human Development Index is a supplement and refinement of the GDP ranking of countries.The value of this index is to focus on the efficiency, strength and potential of the city's economy, as well as people's livelihoods, while people are generally concerned about the total amount of the city's economy, providing a new window to observe the quality of the city's economic development.
Chen Xian introduced the first five indicators of the indicator system, reflecting the contributions of labor, land, capital, technology and human capital, which are commonly used. The denominator of land productivity is the built-up area, and the numerator is the sum of value added of secondary and tertiary industries. Unfortunately, the university-educated population is census data, and it is not possible to obtain the annual university-educated population of each city, so only the talent ratio calculated using the data from the seventh population census can be used.
In addition, entrepreneurship is recognized as an important factor of production, so how can we examine the contribution of this factor to the city's economy? "The "Big City Index" uses the number of enterprises with market capitalization (sales revenue) of 10 billion yuan or more as a reflection of the contribution of entrepreneurship and management to the urban economy.
In the design of indicators reflecting the level of people's livelihood, environmental quality and public services in cities, "per capita disposable income" is used instead of "per capita GDP" to more directly reflect the level of people's livelihood in cities; "ratio of good ambient air quality days" to reflect the quality of urban environment; and "per capita general public budget expenditure" to reflect the level of public services in cities. The ratio of good ambient air quality days is used to reflect the quality of the urban environment, and the per capita general public budget expenditure is used to reflect the level of urban public services.
character used in Taiwan as a substitute for a real name (like "X" in English)In the "Big City Index" report released this year, Nanjing's overall ranking is the sixth in the country.The best ranked of the ten indicators is the talent ratio, second out of 59 cities; followed by the number of patents granted for inventions per 10,000 people, third; and labor productivity, fourth.
○Chen Xian believes that maintaining sustainable economic growth and development ultimately relies on scientific and technological innovation and industrial innovation, and Shenzhen is a better example. Keeping the growth rate and innovation drive are in the same direction.
03The future is clearly visible in the list
Through the above list, what kind of Nanjing do we see?
○If that is not clear enough, look at another authoritative list - the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) Global Innovation Index (GII) Report. This report is based on two major factors: the location of inventors in patent applications disclosed under the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT), and the location of authors of published scientific and technical papers. These indicators are counted and ranked to identify the most active areas of scientific and technological activity in the world.Nanjing ranked ninth in this year's Global Innovation Index ranking.
○There is another element that is not on the lists yet but plays an important role in the global economy, and that is leading the development of international standards.Since 2023, more than 20 international standards of ISO and IEC have been developed under the leadership and with the participation of Nanjing organizations, and Nanjing's discourse on international standards is among the forefront in the country.
○Ni Feng, chief expert of charging and switching of the State Grid Corporation, said that in the field of charging and switching alone, Nanrui Group has led the development of eight international standards, involving charging roaming, information interaction, battery replacement, connectors and other aspects.
○Nanjing Glass Fiber Institute Standards Institute Director Cui Jun introduced, China's glass fiber, both in terms of production and category, is the world's first, but the industry discourse is not in our hands. Over the past ten years, Nanjing Glass Fiber Academy has led the development of more than ten international standards for composite materials, most of which are the results of the past two years.
In the agricultural sector, Nanjing Laoshan Pharmaceutical led the international standardization of royal jelly production.
○Nanjing's scientific research strength is far beyond the imagination of the locals.Nanjing is quietly transforming into a knowledge city in the global economy. The index scores in the various lists are pushing Nanjing into a new knowledge-based and learning city node in the global economic network.
○Peter J. Taylor, Founder of GaWC: Cities are extremely complex, consisting of a myriad of economic, commercial, social, cultural, administrative and other processes. Since 2000, GaWC has been tracking the development of one particular element of this complexity: how cities play a vital role in facilitating economic globalization through the provision of high-end services.
○If innovation is a crucial role for Nanjing to play, what will be the core force driving innovation in Nanjing?
In June of this year, BCG (The Boston Consulting Group), The Network and The Stepstone Group (Zeal Capital Global Investment Management) partnered to release the report Decoding Global Talent 2024: Dream Destinations and Mobility Trends. The report concludes that the number of actively mobile people is increasing globally, with up to 800 million professionals actively seeking opportunities. The report, which surveyed 150,000 people in 188 countries, explores why people work abroad, their destination choices, and how employers and governments are attracting and retaining international talent.
○Highly qualified and creative people are the key to driving economic growth and innovation in cities.
The A.T. Kearney Global Cities Index report has added talent mobility as one of the two indicators it evaluates this year.
Yan Yan believes that, along with China's economic and population development have both entered the "new normal", for the future, the competition between cities will shift from the hard conditions of land, facilities and industries to the pursuit of science and technology innovation, young talent, lifestyle and other soft power.
○Nanjing's future competitiveness should be reflected in the leadership of science and technology innovation, the attractiveness of young talents and the diversity of lifestyles. Lifestyle is the key to retaining people in a city, and Gen Zers are more willing to pay for a recognized lifestyle, ranging from outdoor sports-oriented Denver in Europe and the United States, to "keep it weird" Austin and Portland, to "the best city for digital nomads" Lisbon, to "the best city for digital nomads" in China. In recent years, cities like Chengdu and Changsha have become ideal destinations for young people with individual lifestyles that meet the needs of today's youth.Nanjing has always been recognized as a happy city, and in the future, through urban renewal operations, we will tap into the city's interesting soul, shape a more diversified and youthful life and cultural scene, and grow into a desirable and stay-at-home city.
○Over the past three to four decades, a number of traditional industrial cities around the world have bucked the trend, the main reason is that they have re-attracted young people into the area, bringing popularity and economic vitality to the area, and the path of development of these cities may be able to provide inspiration for Nanjing's shift to a talent-centered global knowledge node.
