Guangzhou: a new alpha city in the world

The position of Guangzhou, capital of Guangdong province, keeps rising in the world thanks to its rapid economic development, according to the Blue Book of Guangzhou: Annual Report on City Internationalization of Guangzhou (2019)  jointly published by the Guangzhou Academy of Social Sciences and Social Sciences Academic Press (China) on June 19.

The blue book noted that Guangzhou had made an outstanding performance in terms of global cities rankings for 2018, updated by world authorities engaged in urban studies.

Guangzhou has been promoted to alpha city status, a first-tier global ranking, according to the world cities ranking list released by the Globalization and World Cities Research Network (GaWC).

GaWC is a think tank that studies the relationships between world cities in the context of globalization, and the rankings it issues are regarded as the most authoritative. It categorizes world cities into alpha, beta, gamma, and sufficiency tiers, based on their international connectedness.

Guangzhou first appeared on the list in 2000 when it ranked 109th, and after eighteen years of further development, the city has been promoted to 27th among the 374 candidates.

The city also received good grades in the 2018 Global Cities Report released by A.T.Kearney, a high-value management consulting firm in the US. It has been occupying the 71st position on the Global Cities Index for the last four years, which means its development level is equivalent to the capital cities of moderately developed countries or major cities of developed countries. Its position on the Global Cities Outlook rose to 59th in 2018 from 76th in 2015.

According to the 23rd Global Financial Centers Index (GFCI) released by British think-tank Z/Yen Group, Guangzhou ranked 28th among the 96 candidates. It then moved forward to 19th among the 100 candidates on the 24th GFCI.

Guangzhou grabbed the 113th position among the 500 candidates on the 2018 Innovation Cities Index released by Australia's analyst firm 2thinknow. Forty-four Chinese cities made it onto the list and Guangzhou ranked sixth among them.