A panoramic view of Xiamen in Fujian province. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

Xiamen city moved up two spots to 17th in terms of comprehensive economic competitiveness in the 2018 report of China's urban competitiveness, which was compiled by the National Academy of Economic Strategy of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

The report, released on June 24, compared the competiveness of Chinese cities of different grades in different regions and metropolitan areas regarding comprehensive economy, sustainability, livability and business-friendliness from 2017 to 2018.

This year, Xiamen was the only city in Fujian province that made it into the top 20 with respect to comprehensive economic competitiveness, scoring high in the increment and density of GDP – two major ranking indicators.

According to the report, Hong Kong remained at the top of the 2018 list of Chinese sustainable cities while Xiamen ranked 13th, showing a continuous upward trend.

Hong Kong is considered to have the strongest livable competitiveness. It has maintained its top position for three consecutive years. Xiamen was placed 11th on this respect. The evaluation is based on the cities' economic, educational and healthcare realities.

Meanwhile, Xiamen came in 15th in the rankings for business-friendliness.

Data shows that in the first quarter of this year, Xiamen's GDP climbed 8 percent to 111.47 billion yuan ($16.2 billion); the increase was 1.6 percentage points higher than the national average. Specifically, the added value of primary, secondary, and tertiary industries in Xiamen were 448 million, 43.94 billion, and 67.08 billion yuan, up 2.7, 7.9, and 8.0 percent respectively. The ratio between the three industries was 0.4:39.4:60.2, which shows that the proportion of the tertiary industry increased by 3.3 percentage points over the same period last year.

According to an expert, a city's comprehensive competitiveness can be improved by innovation, industrial optimization and upgrading, ecological civilization, cultural prosperity and urban-rural integration.

At present, Xiamen is making great efforts to forge a new economic pattern that is in accordance with the city's development concept of "innovation, coordination, environmental-friendly, openness and sharing" and meets high quality development requirements.