Comparative Analysis of Urban Competitiveness in the Yangtze River Delta and Pearl River Delta Regions of China, 2000–2010

Many studies have employed the perspective of urban competitiveness to understand the development and restructuring of cities and regions in the context of economic globalization, while a few studies have made comparative analyses of urban competitiveness and competitive advantages in different regions. This paper makes a systematic comparison of urban competitiveness in Yangtze River Delta (YRD) and Pearl River Delta (PRD) in China in the period 2000–2010. Although, YRD and PRD are two most advanced regions in China, they have rarely been compared in terms of urban competitive advantages and regional spatial restructuring. Urban competitiveness is assessed using a four-level hierarchal evaluation system with a total of 59 indicators. The results show that, among the four dimensions of economic, social, environmental, and connectivity competitiveness, economic competitiveness had the most significant correlation with the overall urban competitiveness in 2000 and 2010, while environmental competitiveness had become less consistent with the overall urban competitiveness in the period. In general, cities in YRD outperformed those in PRD in terms of improvement in the relative competitiveness in the period 2000–2010. The primate city in PRD (Shenzhen in 2000 and Guangzhou in 2010) was much weaker than its counterpart in YRD (Shanghai). But the top three competitive cities in PRD became more dominant than those in YRD over the decade. There was a trend of convergence in urban competitiveness in YRD, while an opposite trend was observed in PRD. The result implies that the urban system in YRD was more mature than that in PRD.