Xi'an in Northwest China's Shaanxi province has attracted the most talent among all new first-tier cities in the past three years, Sina Finance reported on Thursday.

Xi'an ranked first among the 15 new first-tier cities, with an increase of 1.29 million permanent residents in the past three years, while Hangzhou in East China's Zhejiang province ranked second with an increase of 1.17 million.

One of the most direct reasons to make Xi'an so attractive is its stimulus policy to grant a talent hukou, a household registration that allows the holder to enjoy local benefits.

The advantages of Hangzhou are the city's successful economic transformation and the impetus behind the active private economy in the city.

The private economy, the most important way to provide employment to people from other places, is well-developed in Zhejiang province, and Hangzhou, a leader in digital economic development in Zhejiang, has the ability to absorb more people from other places, said Sun Bushu, vice-president of the South China City Research Association.

Statistics show the added value of the core industries of the digital economy in Hangzhou reached 379.5 billion yuan in 2019, accounting for 24.7 percent of the GDP. Digital content increased 16.3 percent, software and information services surged 15.7 percent, and e-commerce grew 14.6 percent.

In 2019, the added value of Hangzhou's private economy reached 937.8 billion yuan, accounting for 61 percent of the GDP, 0.5 percentage points higher than that of the previous year. By the end of 2019, the number of private enterprises in Hangzhou witnessed a 14 percent increase to reach 632,000 while individual businesses grew 19.6 percent to 610,000.

Industrialization and the transfer of labor-intensive industries are important reasons for new first-tier cities to attract talent.

In the past three years, the permanent resident population of Southwest China's Sichuan province as well as Central China's Hunan and Henan provinces has increased by 1.13 million, 964,000 and 1.08 million, respectively. Their capital cities, namely Chengdu, Changsha and Zhengzhou, respectively accounted for 58.7 percent, 77.7 percent and 58.3 percent of the provinces' permanent population growth.

China is currently on its way to develop innovative industries, which must be close to talent centers and must have gathered sufficient resources. This means that new first-tier cities need to gain new competitive advantages in industrial transformation and increase the attractiveness of population inflows, Sun said.

Apart from the abovementioned places, China's 15 new first-tier cities also include Chongqing in Southwest China, Wuhan in Central China's Hubei province, Tianjin in North China, Suzhou and Nanjing in East China's Jiangsu province, Dongguan and Foshan in South China's Guangdong province, Shenyang in Northeast China's Liaoning province, Qingdao in East China's Shandong province, and Hefei in East China's Anhui province.