Zhengzhou National Center City Competitiveness Evaluation

The national central city refers to the central city that is at the top of the urban system,reflects the direction of national strategic development,leads the rapid development of urban agglomerations and regional economies,and participates in international competition.The national central city is the perfection and innovation of the traditional urban theory system in China,which indicates that China’s urbanization has entered a new stage in the process of modernization.In 2016,in the "13th Five-Year Plan for Promoting the Rise of the Central Region",it was first proposed to support Zhengzhou to construct a national central city.In November 2016,at the tenth party congress in Henan Province,the goal of becoming a national central city of Zhengzhou was officially presented at the highest meeting in the province for the first time.The construction of a national central city has become the goal of Zhengzhou in the next few years,indicating that the development of Zhengzhou has entered a new historical stage,which has opened the prelude to Zhengzhou’s move to higher-level cities and even global cities.Under the trend of gradually shifting the focus of China’s economic strategy and the rapid development of the current economy,Zhengzhou’s strategic position in the national economic development pattern has gradually become prominent.Under such a background,the research of the evaluation of the competitiveness of Zhengzhou National Center City,is of great significance for enriching the theory of national central cities and enhancing the competitiveness of Zhengzhou’s cities.The level of urban competitiveness is the key factor determining urban development.Objectively and scientifically evaluating urban competitiveness is an important prerequisite and basis for formulating urban development strategies and predicting urban development direction.This paper takes the nine national central cities that have been confirmed in the national level planning as the research object and the selected four regional central cities,Based on the relevant research results and theoretical analysis at home and abroad,the author proposes the four core elements of the national central city,Including the elements of economic agglomeration,the elements of radiation,the elements of scientific and technological innovation,and the elements of international competitiveness,and to establish a comprehensive evaluation index of national central city competitiveness,In four time sections(2008,2012,2016,2017),and used Principal Component Analysis and Factor Analysis to comprehensively evaluate and analyze the competitiveness of 13 central cities.According to the final evaluation result:(1)Revealed the overall evolution of the competitiveness of 13 central cities: First,from the comprehensive scores from 2008 to 2017,Shanghai,Beijing,Guangzhou,and Tianjin are basically ranked in the top four competitiveness rankings of 13 central cities.The trend of the central cities’ competitiveness ranking from the fifth to the thirteenth cities can be roughly divided into three categories : less competitiveness changes,increased competitiveness,and weaker competitiveness.Zhengzhou slipped from the first tenth to eleventh.(2)Revealing the evolution of the principal components of 13 central cities,analyzing the gaps and insufficiencies between Zhengzhou and other centers based on the scores and rankings of economic strength factors,scientific and technological strength factors,international competition factors,radiation-driven factors,and found that the scientific technological strength factor is the biggest shortcoming for zhengzhou to construct the national central city.(3)Analyzed the evolution of the factors affecting the competitiveness of 13 central cities.The average variance contribution rate of economic strength factor and scientific technological strength factor in 2008,2012,2016 and 2017 reached nearly 80%.It can be said that economic strength and scientific technological strength are the two major factors that constitute the competitiveness of a national central city.To a certain degree,the competitiveness of national central city depends on economic strength and scientific technological strength.Finally,systematically analyze the advantages and disadvantages of Zhengzhou’s construction of the national central city,and combine the advantages and disadvantages to propose Zhengzhou’s national central city policy recommendations.(1)Advantages: It mainly includes significant advantages in location transportation,profound cultural heritage,abundant human resources,and superposition of policy advantages.(2)Insufficient: The economic strength is not strong,the total population is small,the radiation-driven ability is relatively weak,the scientific and technological innovation is not strong,and the international competitiveness needs to be improved.(3)Policy recommendations: foster scientific and technological innovation advantages,improve scientific and technological innovation;enlarge and strengthen central cities,enhance urban centrality;accelerate industrial structure transformation and upgrading,improve radiation-driven capacity;expand opening up and enhance international influence.