The Construction And Empirical Analysis Of Urban Competitiveness Index System In Yangtze River

As a form of social organization, cities has dominated an important position in the economic development in the majority of countries worldwide, after undergoing of transformation and developing for nearly 5000 years. In recent years, with the acceleration of globalization and the ever-significant role cities play in international competition, the competition among countries are all the more manifested in that among cities. Yangtze River Delta, as the world-recognized sixth largest city complex, is holding a leading position economically, socially and culturally. Meanwhile, being the most developed region in China, Yangtze River Delta is remarkably important for the analysis of competition potential of the cities in this region. This article selects this region as the research object and conducted analysis and research on the cities’ competition potential in this region.This article starts from literature review and then goes to an assessment index system of the competition potential of Yangtze River Delta’s cities by means of combining classical theories, the Scientific Outlook on Development, the guiding principle of "people-oriented", the real situations of this region as well as the availability of data. In the following parts, the article concludes the strong points and weak points of each city by researching on related analyzing ways including the major-component-targeted analysis and cluster analysis. It uses major-component-targeted analysis to compare those cities in four aspects: sustained development of economy, sustained development of environment, living standard and public service. By doing so and ranks those cities by grades by using cluster analysis. In addition, it not only analyzes their competition potentials of the first half of 2012, but also research on the dynamic changes of their competition potentials. From the empirical outcomes, it can be known that the average completion potential of Shanghai has surpassed other cities; yet the limiting of Shanghai’s land area and resources and its large population, it has problems of resource-wasting in the sustained development of environment and low per capita of income. Thus, Shanghai needs to mind environmental protection and the sprawling of "cities’ disease". The other two provinces also have respective strong points and weak points. Generally speaking, Jingsu’s advantages outweight those of Zhejiang. The article analyzes cities’ strong points and weak points in various aspects and finds that each city has its weak point in environmental protection and medical service. It is also found that the comprehensive power of Suzhou, Hangzhou, Ningbo and () remains the superior position; the comprehensive power of most cities in Jiangsu Province except Suzhou, Nanjing, Wuxi and Changzhou remains the middle position; the comprehensive power of most cities in Zhejiang Province except Hangzhou, Ningbo, Wenzhou remains stable and there exists a gap in that of the rest cities. Finally, the article raises some strategies for the development of cities’ competition potentials basing on differences among cities.