Taiwan rated more competitive than HK
Hong Kong has slipped behind Taiwan competitively, according to an organisation based on the mainland and in Hong Kong.
The city lags Macau in government integrity and comes a poor third to Shenzhen and Shanghai in terms of innovation. And it doesn't even make the top 10 list of China's most harmonious cities.
That's the view of the China Institute of City Competitiveness, which assesses socio-economic factors in the 34 provinces, municipalities, and regions of the country, plus Taiwan.
Taiwan, second for competitiveness in a similar survey last year, took the top slot this year while Shanghai stayed at third. One of Hong Kong's problems as seen by the institute was the rowdiness of its protests - which most people here would regard as a reflection of freedom of speech. That not only knocked off marks for harmony but also government integrity - although Hong Kong's was still seen as the most effective government.
'The Hong Kong government is still providing high-quality governance,' institute president Gui Qiangfang, an economist, said. 'But there were some big social disputes here in the past year. In this sense, The Macau government has done a bit better.'
Government integrity takes into account, among other things, public image, openness of governance, and investor satisfaction.
The research also found Hong Kong was not in the top 10 most harmonious cities to live in. The top three were Jinghua in Zhejiang province, Dongying in Shandong province, and Nanchang in Jiangxi province.
Founded in 1998, the institute is a private non-profit organisation based in Hong Kong.
