“The Government-Business Relationship of Cities in China Ranking 2017” Released by NADS for the First Time

The anti-corruption movement since the 18th National Congress and the some entrepreneurs’ recent online complaints have stressed the importance of building a new type of government-enterprise relationship featured by closeness and transparency. As a response to the government’s requirement of establishing a business environment assessment mechanism, the research team of NADS established an evaluation system for the healthy relationship between government and enterprises. On 26th February, Professor Nie Huihua, Standing Deputy Dean of NADS, released the “The Government-Business Relationship of Cities in China Ranking 2017”, as the representative of our research team. The Ranking ranks the government-enterprise relationship of 285 cities in China according to their health index. It was reported that the Ranking is the first domestic ranking of government-enterprise relationship.

Professor Liu Yuanchun, Vice President of the Renmin University of China, pointed that China's political-economic environment has changed a lot since the 18th national congress, within which the most significant changes are the changes of government-enterprise relationship and the growth mechanism of interest among the general public. Under the circumstances, the political basis of traditional government-business relationship, the foundation of economic development, and the social moral justice foundation, have been transformed. In this sense, NADS decided to take the responsibility as the national high-end think tank and started to focus on the new type of government-business relationship. The assessment report of the government-business report released by NADS has some new ideas in terms of methodology and indicators and is expected to be an important guide and reference for evaluating the local business environment.

Key findings of “The Government-Business Relationship of Cities in China Ranking 2017” are as below:

1. Among 285 cities in China, Dongguan City ranks 1st relating to the health index of government-business relationship. The top 10 cities are Dongguan, Shenzhen, Shanghai, Beijing, Guangzhou, Jinhua, Suzhou, Wenzhou, Xingtai, Changsha. In spite of direct-controlled municipality Beijing, most of the top 10 cities are located in the southeast coastal area and Xingtai is the only northern city.

2. In terms of provinces, Shanghai ranks 1st among them. Beijing ranks #2 and is followed by Zhejiang Province. The following top 10 provinces are Hebei, Tianjin, Fujian, Hainan, Jiangsu, Guangdong, Shandong.

3. As for different areas, the report indicates that the East China area shares the healthiest government-business relationship, which is followed by the north and the south. The three areas are above the average level. In comparison, the southwest China area and the northwest area are left behind.

4. Cities with higher administrative level have a healthier government-business relationship.

5. Cities where their government-enterprise relationships are healthier, their income level is also higher than that of the other places.

6. In terms of closeness, the top 10 cities are Dongguan, Shenzhen, Shanghai, Suzhou, Changsha, Hefei, Jinhua, Guangzhou, Fuzhou, Xingtai. The report shows that the level of closeness between government and enterprises in coastal areas is higher than that of inland areas. Comparing provinces, Shanghai, Beijing, and Hainan are the top 3, while Guangxi, Xinjiang, and Yunnan countdown top 3. This indicates that the degree of economic development is positively related to the closeness of the provincial-level government-business relationship.

7. Speaking of transparency, the top 10 cities are Beijing, Wenzhou, Weifang, Anshan, Guangzhou, Taizhou, Liaocheng, Hangzhou, Shijiazhuang, Chengdu. This means that the level of transparency of government-enterprise relationship in east coastal cities is higher than that of the inland cities. In terms of provinces, Beijing, Shanghai, and Zhejiang rank among the top three, with Qinghai, Henan, and Tibet ranking the last. From the perspective of economic level, the report shows no linear relationship between the province's transparency index and its level of economic development.

Based on the assessment report, the research team of NADS suggests that:

1. Strengthening the supervision on local governments’ implementation of the policy of tax and fee reduction. Considering the fact that the current economic downturn has not yet been contained and most enterprises have reflected that the burden of the tax is relatively heavy, the central government, in the short term, could strengthen its administrative supervision on the local governments’ implementation of relating policies.

2. Using the technological advantages of the “internet plus” to enhance administrative transparency and efficiency. The authorities should establish a concept, namely accessing the internet is the principle. Otherwise, it would be an exception. For some remote areas with inconvenient transportation, the efficiency of government affairs could be promoted through "internet plus", which is a technological “backwardness advantage”.

3. Influencing the “big environment” through “small environments”, namely establishing pilots. The central government should encourage the local governments to establish several reform pilot zones. After accumulating the successful experiences of the “small environments”, the larger environment could replicate the experiences and ultimately make some contributions.

4. Promoting third-party assessment of government-business relationship and business environment, using external forces to push local governments to improve policies. The central government could introduce third-party evaluations of professionals into its evaluating mechanism of the local business environment. This will not only reduce information asymmetry but also prompt local governments to face problems that need to be solved.

5. Avoiding over-inclining to large cities in the process of resource allocation and striving to reduce the imbalance of government-business relationship within the region. It is suggested that the central government could gradually reduce the differences in the administrative level of cites, gradually cancel the administrative level of cities, and allow the market to play a more important role in allocating resources.

6. In the long term, the key to promote government-business relationship is economic development.


NADS is one of the national high-end think tanks and ranks in the top university think tanks for many times. This report is the annual report of Center for Research on Government-Enterprise Relationship and Industrial Development. The authors are Professor Nie Huihua, Standing Deputy Dean of NADS, research fellows of NADS Han Donglin, Ma Liang and Zhang Nan Diyang.