(Yicai) Dec. 18 -- Shanghai has topped the urban coordinated development capability ranking among the 110 cities in the Yangtze River Economic Belt for the 11th consecutive year.

Shanghai scored 74.95 points in the annual Urban Coordinated Development Capability Index released by East China Normal University yesterday. Hangzhou and Nanjing remained second and third.

Released since 2015, the index is a comprehensive indicator that measures the cities' collaborative development capabilities across economic development, technological innovation, transportation services, ecological protection, and other areas.

Suzhou and Ningbo both gained a spot to rank fifth and ninth, respectively, thanks to their strong technology transformation capabilities, while Wuhan and Hefei, despite showing significant scientific and technological innovation strength, each dropped a place due to weaker such capabilities, ranking sixth and 10th, respectively.

Two significant issues regarding the coordinated development capability of the 110 cities remain when compared to world-class standards.

First, there is still significant room for improvement in ecological collaboration. Despite the urban economic coordinated development capability increasing to 0.387 this year from 0.274 the previous year and the spatial agglomeration of technological innovation coordinated development capability rising to 0.074 from 0.046, the spatial correlation of ecological support coordinated capability fell to 0.109 from 0.138.

Second, the differentiation between coastal and inland urban agglomerations remains significant. The urban cluster in the mid-Yangtze River exhibits relatively balanced development across various sectors, but there are notable disparities within three urban agglomerations.

The Wuhan urban agglomeration shows a high level of collaboration in economic and technological innovation, while the Changsha-Zhuzhou-Xiangtan one focuses on economic development and exchange services. In contrast, the Nanchang urban agglomeration excels in exchange services and ecological support.

The urban agglomeration in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River exhibits an unbalanced development pattern. That of Chongqing performs outstandingly across various areas, while the overall coordinated development capability of Chengdu's urban agglomeration is relatively weak, with a significant gap in coordinated development levels between the two.

The gross domestic product of the Yangtze River Economic Belt rose 5.4 percent to CNY63 trillion (USD9 trillion) last year from 2023.

Editor: Martin Kadiev