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Before the end of 2019, Guangzhou has scored another achievement and topped a list assessing the business environment.
On December 23, Report on the Evaluation of Business Environment and Private Entrepreneurs in China (Report) shows that Guangzhou ranked the first in the comprehensive evaluation of business environment among 34 major Chinese cities in 2018, based on entrepreneurs' subjective assessment. The report was released by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Bureau of Scientific Research Management of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Institute of Sociology of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and Social Sciences Academic Press.
Guangzhou won the top place in subjective evaluation of business environment by entrepreneurs
Business environment is of great significant as it can directly affect the investment and the companies, ultimately deciding the local economic growth, fiscal revenue, and job opportunities. A sound business environment reflects the economic soft power of a country or region, and a key factor in improving the comprehensive competitiveness.
The Report is based on statistics from the national survey of business environment and private entrepreneur index, as well as the subjective evaluation of the current business by private entrepreneurs. It analyzes the current situation, improvements and problems of business environment in 34 major cities in China, and provides solutions and advice to the above issues.
The Report assessed the cities from the following five aspects: government environment, market environment, social environment, legal environment and open environment. Government environment is an important factor to investment, and quality of business environment; market environment influences the production and operation of companies from the outside and defines their existence and development; legal environment indicates the level of rule of law in a city, laying the foundation of business environment; open environment ensures a fair and open market that is vital to a sound economy and companies’ rapid growth.
In the Report, Top 10 cities in terms of a enabling business environment from the above five aspects included Hangzhou, Jinan, Ningbo, Wuhan and Chengdu. Of the 34 cities, five scored over 90 in entrepreneurs’ subjective evaluation, and they were Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Shanghai, Beijing and Nanjing.
Giving full play to market forces is a move with Guangzhou characteristics.
Guangzhou, a national central city, a comprehensive gateway, an international trade center and a comprehensive transportation hub, and the core engine of Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macau Greater Bay Area (GBA), covers an area of 7,434.4 km2, managing an actual population of over 20 million. In 2018, Guangzhou reached a GDP of 2.29 trillion yuan and a per capita GDP of more than 20, 000 US dollars. Facing the question of how to secure steady and high-quality development for such a large-scale city, Guangzhou took a broad move of giving full play to market forces and optimizing the market environment.
Guangzhou topped in the national rank of business environment through hard work for years. In the first three quarters of this year, Guangzhou's GDP reached 1.79 trillion yuan, up by 6.9 percent over the same period last year. It also stood in the first place for many years in the list of Chinese mainland best business cities released by Forbes. On top of that, Guangzhou was the most popular investment city in China in 2018, according to the 2018 White Paper on Business Environment in China and the 2018 Special report on the State of Business in South China released by the American Chamber of Commerce in South China. At present, Guangzhou houses 34,000 foreign-invested enterprises, and more than 300 of the world's top 500 enterprises investing in the city. Besides, there are 65 consulates-general and above 80 international cities in partnership with Guangzhou. In recent years, the Canton Fair each year has received about 200,000 visits, with a turnover of 30 billion US dollars. Its night consumption increased by 12.5% during the golden week of National Day, ranking first in first-tier cities, according to the tourism consumption analysis report released by Meituan. And the data briefing of Tmall in 2019 shows that, the daily trading volume of Guangzhou on November 11, the shopping gala, registered 8.07 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 20%.
Today, Guangzhou brims with vitality in its development. As the city with the most developed manufacturing and service industries and the most complete categories in South China, Guangzhou has gradually established a modern industry system and moved faster in replacing old driving forces with new ones. Specifically, it has been actively boosting a new generation of strategic emerging industries such as information technology, artificial intelligence, biomedicine (IAB) and new energy and new materials (NEM), and developing industrial chains in new displays, integrated circuits, intelligent and connected NEVs, rail transit, and biomedicine. Guangzhou also enjoys outstanding strengths in science and technology, and education. It boasts 82 universities, 20 state key laboratories and 233 provincial key laboratories. The applications for patents and invention patents in Guangzhou reached 173,000 and exceeded 50,000 respectively last year. From January to September this year, the number of patents and invention patents granted increased by 19.4% and 16.8% respectively, and the turnover of technology contracts surpassed 30 billion yuan, up by more than 60%. The number of enterprises is also growing rapidly, with an average of over 900 startups per day.
Today's Guangzhou has great potential and numerous opportunities. It has the largest area and population, and is endowed with favorable location and strong domestic demand among the four core cities in the GBA. It also enjoys a wide range of transportation from land, sea, aviation, railway to waterway, combined with developed ports. Guangzhou Port has access to more than 400 ports in above 100 countries and regions worldwide, making it the fifth largest port in the world. Baiyun Airport, the third largest aviation hub in China, covers over 200 stations around the globe. Guangzhou has the most high-speed trains services and Guangzhou South Railway Station handles the most passengers nationwide. On top of that, the city is a major communication hub, network exchange center, and network inlet and outlet. All these contribute to the market expansion for businesses. In addition, the mature regulations in line with international standards for business environment, market order, as well as management and services have attracted high-level talents for starting up businesses, laying a solid foundation for the extensive market.
In terms of culture and health care, Guangzhou has been awarded such titles as National Civilized City National Health City, National Garden City, China’s Best Tourist City, and National Forest City. According to relevant reports released by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), Guangzhou has remained in the first place in Human Development Index (HDI) for two running years, thanks to its solid foundation in science and technology, education, medicare, health care and culture, plus reasonable manufacturing and living costs in city.
