Guangzhou joins world's first-tier cities

The 2018 Blue Book of Guangzhou released on Sept 25 shows that the city ranks in the Alpha group among 361 cities worldwide, taking 40th place out of 49 first-tier cities in the world.

The Blue Book of Guangzhou: Annual Report on City Internationalization of Guangzhou (2018) was released by the Guangzhou Academy of Social Sciences and Social Sciences Academic Press (China). It points out that Guangzhou has stood out in the latest global city ranking released by multiple international authorities since 2017. Guangzhou is gradually entering the first level of world urban systems and developing as a global city.

The World According to GaWC, released and published by Globalization and World Cities Research Network (GaWC) every two years, is one of the most important and authoritative reports in the field of global city rating. Cities are assessed in terms of their advanced producer services using the interlocking network model. The study uses the distribution of six high-end producer services institutions, such as banking, insurance, law, consulting management, advertising and accounting, among the world's major cities as indicators, and divides the major cities into four levels: Alpha, Beta, Gamma and Sufficiency.

In the latest The World According to GaWC (2016), released in April 2017, Guangzhou ranked Alpha among 361 cities worldwide, a historic first tier world placement second in China only to those of Hong Kong, Beijing, Shanghai and Taipei.

Moreover, the Blue Book also shows that Guangzhou has risen both in ranking and score on the Global Financial Centers Index (GFCI). The ranking jumped four places this year to 28th in the world. Guangzhou has become one of the most active regions in the country for direct financing. In addition, the city was re-selected for Stable Development among 40 Financial Centers in the report of the 23th GFCI.