Report names most open cities

Shenzhen, Guangzhou and Xiamen on the southeast coast are the three places in China with the greatest economic, technological and social openness, according to a report released Saturday at the Boao Forum for Asia.

According to the report, the first of its kind, Shenzhen, one of the earliest economic zones in Guangdong Province, is the most open. It has an edge on trade contacts, innovation and technology exchanges. Guangzhou, the capital city of Guangdong, is ranked second. Xiamen, in Fujian Province, was third, the Nanfang Daily reported.

All three places were among the first wave of regions in China to modernize their economies and open themselves to foreign investment, a process that started in the 1980s.

The International Cooperation Center of National Development and Reform Commission released the report, which rates Chinese cities' openness to doing business internationally. The ranking list includes 32 cities, including 27 capital cities and five other cities with provincial-level economic management authority. The evaluation is based on 48 indicators rating the economy, technology and societal openness, trade contacts, foreign currency deposits and direct investments from foreign merchants.

Hangzhou and Ningbo in Zhejiang Province, Nanjing in Jiangsu Province, Dalian in Liaoning Province and Qingdao in Shandong Province came next.

These eight cities are all from coastal or eastern provinces, suggesting that a city's openness level is closely connected to regional openness and development. It also highlights the problem of China's imbalanced development regionally, said the report.

Cities taking the last five spots of the list are all from western inland China, namely Hohhot in Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, Lhasa in Tibet Autonomous Region, Lanzhou in Gansu Province, Yinchuan in Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region and Xining in Qinghai Province, according to China News Service.

The western part of China is not likely to become a hot spot of foreign investments due to its geographical location, Ding Yifan, researcher at the Institute of World Development under the Development Research Center of the State Council, told the Global Times.

Most foreign investment in eastern coastal areas are focused on raw material processing, which doesn't suit western China, Ding said, adding that the west, which has remarkable sunshine, should seek openness based on its own unique qualities, such as agricultural product processing.

Citing the eastern coastal areas' great achievements in terms of openness, Ding pointed out that excess capacity is a common problem in China and the east should not continue seeking foreign investment targeting raw material processing,

"Openness in the service industry is the trend," said Ding. "Currently the service industry in China isn't open enough in the sense that the market in the field is so large and the potential is also significant."