Many Chinese mayors take special pride in the amount of capital their cities attract in a year, but that may have to change today.

Years ago the amount of capital attracted was the decisive indicator of how dynamic a city was, Beijing based China Youth Daily reported.

But according to a recently released research report of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS), infrastructure now tops the list of factors that decide the comparative competitiveness of China's cities, taking the place of the attraction of capital.

Released last week, the report, or "blue book", ranks human resources, government service and capital introduced as the next three most important factors immediately following infrastructure.

The CASS ranked Shanghai as most competitive among all the 200 cities from the Chinese mainland, though all of them have recordedan annual gross domestic product growth rate of more than eight percent in 2003.

"From this we can tell that these cities are paying more attention on how to develop themselves in a coordinated way instead of merely pursuing rapid economic growth," said Dr. Ni Pengfei, a professor with the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

Rapid economic development in cities, he noted, has led to surging demand for energy, communications facilities and other resources, which lifted infrastructure to the top of list of factors that influence competitiveness.

"In the planned economy era, a city had to depend on capital introduced for development, " he explained. "But with the development of a market economy, other factors like human resources and technology will surpass the role of capital."

The change in the order of the factors that influence competitiveness is particularly obvious in coastal cities according to the report, noting that they have realized the necessity of achieving development through efficient and energy-saving modes of growth.

"We believe that coordinated development will be the right course for Chinese cities to follow," Ni said.

Source: Xinhua