According to the “2021 Financial Competitiveness Ranking of Chinese Provinces and Cities” released recently, Ningbo rose two places in the ranking, surpassing Chongqing and Jinan, and promoted to the top ten in the country. The financial competitiveness of a city known for its traditional manufacturing industry is riding the trend.

Financial competitiveness rose to 10th

“Ningbo Plate” has contributed greatly

8C-PCNT01 Ningbo is located in the southeast coast, is the world’s fourth largest port city, the comprehensive economic strength is outstanding, is one of the 23 domestic “GDP trillion club” members. The development of the real economy cannot be separated from the water of financial life. Ningbo has always attached importance to the development of the financial industry. In 2011, Ningbo proposed to become a regional financial center with complete functions, great influence and wide radiation range in the southern wing of the Yangtze River Delta. After years of development, finance has become the fourth largest contribution industry and the seventh pillar industry of the city, and has successively been approved as a pilot area such as the National Insurance Innovation Comprehensive Pilot Zone and the National Inclusive Financial Reform Pilot Zone. In the “Financial Competitiveness Ranking of Chinese Mainland Provinces and Cities 2021”, Ningbo’s comprehensive ranking rose by 2 places to the 10th place in the country.

The latest data show that in 2021, the added value of Ningbo’s financial industry is 106.27 billion yuan, accounting for 7.3% of GDP. Looking at the long time, the growth rate of Ningbo’s financial industry has been leading in recent years, and the added value of the financial industry in 2020 is 99.46 billion yuan, which is 2.1 times that of 2015.

The improvement of Ningbo’s financial competitiveness is mainly due to its excellent performance in the capital market. By the end of 2021, Ningbo has 116 domestic and foreign listed companies, more than Tianjin and Chongqing municipality; In 2021 alone, 14 companies will be listed 8C-PCNT01 on the capital market, and another six companies will be listed later. Ball crown cable tasted the first soup of the North Stock Exchange and became the first listed company in the country.

As of the end of 2021, the total market value of A-shares of Ningbo listed companies is 1.49 trillion yuan, an increase of about 400 billion yuan, or 36%, compared with 2020. There are 8 companies with a market value of more than 50 billion yuan, accounting for 7.48%, which is the same as Hangzhou and far more than Suzhou’s level of less than 3%.

In addition, Ningbo reserve listed companies have abundant resources. As of the end of October 2021, there are a total of 53 companies to be listed, of which 35 are in the coaching period and 18 are reported to the CSRC for review. According to the “14th Five-Year Plan”, the number of domestic and foreign listed companies in Ningbo will reach 200 by the end of 2025, and the total market value of listed companies will exceed 3 trillion yuan, achieving a “double doubling”.

Strong manufacturing foundation

Strategic emerging industries have obvious advantages

In addition to the capital market, Ningbo also performs well in terms of financial development potential. As a single champion city in manufacturing, it has 182 specialized and special new companies, ranking third in the country, second only to Beijing and Shanghai. In the list issued by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, there are 596 individual champion enterprises, Ningbo occupies 45 seats and ranks first, of which more than 30 have successfully landed in the capital market. According to the latest plan, by 2025, the number of specialized new “little giant” enterprises in Ningbo has reached 1,000, and the number of national manufacturing individual champion enterprises has reached 130, which has increased by more than 4 times and 2 times compared with the existing number.

The development of Ningbo manufacturing industry cannot be separated from persistent innovation investment. In 2020, Ningbo’s scientific research investment will be 38.5 billion yuan, and the research and development intensity will be 3.10%, which is basically the same as that of the top ten Guangzhou and Chengdu.

The development of financial institutions provides strong 8C-PCNT01 support for the prosperity of Ningbo’s manufacturing industry. In recent years, the growth rate of private equity funds settled in Ningbo has been rapid. According to the data of China Foundation Association, as of the end of 2021, there are 804 registered private equity fund managers, 4,829 fund products under management, and the management scale exceeds 826.7 billion yuan, ranking 7th, 6th and 7th among the 36 CSRC jurisdictions in China. The management scale has increased by nearly 70% compared with the end of 2020, ranking in the forefront of China. As a leader in the capital market, Ningbo has 193 securities branches, accounting for about one-sixth of Zhejiang Province, which basically matches the proportion of listed companies.

Throughout the improvement of Ningbo’s financial competitiveness, the main reasons are as follows:

First, Ningbo has a strong manufacturing foundation and obvious advantages in strategic emerging industries, which greatly improves its competitiveness in the capital market. According to the data, the number of enterprises in the fields of high-end equipment, new materials, new energy and industrial Internet 8C-PCNT01 in Ningbo ranks among the top 5 in the country, and the number of enterprises in energy conservation and environmental protection and new generation information technology ranks 6th and 10th in the country respectively.

Second, the government attaches great importance to the role of the financial industry in serving the real economy, and has implemented the “Phoenix Action” since 2017, and all districts and counties have introduced support policies for listing enterprises, which are included in the assessment indicators. At the end of 2021, an enhanced version of the “Phoenix Action” will be released to implement special actions such as doubling capital market entities and improving the quality of listed companies. According to the “Fourteenth Five-Year Plan”, Ningbo strives to build an industrial financial innovation center and regional financial center with a wide range of radiation and great influence by 2025. The total assets of the municipal financial industry exceed 6 trillion yuan, and the added value of the financial industry reaches 140 billion yuan, accounting for 8.2% of GDP.

It is worth noting that compared with Hangzhou and Suzhou, the top cities in the Yangtze River Delta, Ningbo’s financial competitiveness still has room for further improvement. From the perspective of economic strength, Ningbo’s GDP in 2021 is 1.46 trillion yuan, 0.81 trillion and 0.35 trillion lower than Suzhou and Hangzhou respectively. In terms of the output value of the financial industry, the added value of the financial industry in Ningbo is 4.8 percentage points lower than that of Hangzhou and 1.4 percentage points lower than that of Suzhou. From the scale of A-share listed companies, the number of Suzhou and Hangzhou listed companies are 176 and more than 200, far exceeding the scale of Ningbo 107.

On the whole, Ningbo’s financial competitiveness performs well in several evaluation dimensions, especially its comprehensive strength in capital market participation and financial development potential. With more high-quality enterprises landing in the capital market in the future, Ningbo Plate’s influence in the capital market is expected to continue to increase, the city’s financial competitiveness will be further enhanced, and occupy a more favorable position in the future urban competition.