Hong Kong comes first among the top 200 Chinese cities while Shanghai continues to lead mainland cities, with Beijing following in second position, according to an annual ranking report of urban competitiveness among Chinese cities, released Monday by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

Besides mainland cities, Hong Kong, Macao and seven Taiwanese cities were also included in the report, for the first time since the institution began to assess the competitiveness of Chinese cities in 2003.

The findings were unveiled by Ni Pengfei, who led nearly experts to prepare an in-depth urban development report for the annual "city competitiveness blue book."

As the research scope was expanded this time, some mainland cities got sliding positions in the ranking report, but this does not indicate a reduction in competitiveness, Ni said.

According to Ni, Chinese cities are witnessing great changes in the competitive power. The competitiveness of mainland cities has been growing quickly, while that of Taiwanese cities is increasing slowly, with some even going downhill.

This, though having something to do with the development periods, reflects a potent trend in economic growth, Ni said.

Ni, a senior researcher with the top government think-tank, also said they discovered the eight most important factors to urban competitiveness through a research. Talents are the most important element, followed by industry and biological environment, Ni was quoted as saying.

The report focused on the competitiveness of 200 leading cities, analyzing and comparing each one of these in competitiveness of the citizens, companies, industries, public departments, commercial environment, creative environment, and social environment.