The World Bank has given A or A plus grades to the overall investment climate in many of China's major cities.

Hangzhou, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen were rated with an "A plus;" Chongqing, Jiangmen, Changchun and Wenzhou, were given an "A;" and Tianjin, Dalian, Beijing and Zhengzhou a perfectly respectable "A minus."

The scores were made public by David Dollar, director of the World Bank China Office, at the weekend when the third session of China's Investment Forum was held in the Pearl River Delta city of Jiangmen, one of the nation's key homelands of overseas Chinese.

Revealing the World Development Report 2005, he said the scores are based on surveys in more than 30 cities in different parts of the country. The investment climate refers primarily to institutional and infrastructural systems including infrastructure, governance and regulations, the labour market, access to financial services and tax rates.

But Dollar said there was a lot of room for improvement in government efficiency, financial services, the labour market, export governance and balanced development.

He said the investment climate differs greatly from one region to another in China, and unbalanced development finds expression in the contribution of private enterprises to local industrial output value.

Also, the credit system remains an outstanding problem in the financial services available in China, he said.

(China Daily May 30, 2005)