Shanghai has been ranked the most competitive of all Chinese cities for the fifth consecutive year in the Global City Competitiveness Ranking that was released on Dec 21.

Shanghai and Hong Kong are the only two cities in China that made it to the top 10, ranking seventh and ninth respectively. Shenzhen is in 19th place while Beijing is ranked 23th.

New York in the United States, Tokyo in Japan and London in the United Kingdom are ranked first, second and third respectively.

The 2017 Global City Competitiveness Ranking is released by the Hong Kong-based China Institute of City Competitiveness, the World Urban Cooperative Organization and the Hong Kong Gui Qiang Fang Institute of Global Competitiveness.

The institutes took a year to analyze 358 cities that are prefecture level or above using an evaluation index that takes into account aspects such as innovation ability, economic strength and resource potential.

In response to Hong Kong's ranking, Gui Qiangfang, president of China (HK) Institute of City Competitiveness, said at the news conference that the progress of the city had been held back by some problems related to infrastructure projects.

Gui said Hong Kong also missed out on being among the top 10 cities with the best investment environment for the same reason. He added that the city risked falling further behind if it does not address these issues.