Suzhou's Kunshan county-level city has dominated the annual ranking of the country’s most competitive cities for the ninth year, accord-ing to the 2013 Medium and Small Chinese County-level Cities Green Paper released in Beijing last Mon-day.

The green paper, a competitiveness yearbook jointly issued by the Northeast 　Asia Development Re-search Institute, the Chinese Acade-my of Social Sciences, and the China Committee for Development of Medium and Small Cities, surveyed the county-level cities in economic and social development, environ-mental protection and government efficiency.

Due to changes in the macro eco-nomic environment, these cities’e-conomic growth and fiscal revenue fluctuated, but their indicators for people’s well-being, environment and scientific innovation remained stable.

Of the top 100 cities in scientific innovation, 59 are in eastern China, 16 are 　in central China, 14 are in western China and 11 are in north-eastern China. 18 county-level cities in the top 100 list are in Jiangsu province. Shandong 　has 16 　and Zhejiang has 14.