Guangzhou leads in financial transparency

Guangzhou, capital city of Guangdong province, has finished at the top in financial transparency among Chinese cities, according to a recent study.

The School of Public Policy & Management at Tsinghua University released its annual study on Chinese cities' financial transparency on June 30. The univsersity studied all 285 prefecture-level cities in China (excluding the newly-established Sansha in Hainan province), and four municipalities directly under the central government, namely, Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjin and Chongqing.

The study assesses cities on whether they have released information on certain government agencies, budgets and other financial information.

Based on this methodology, Guangzhou scored the highest in the rankings, followed by Beijing and Shanghai. The major three cities have occupied the top three positions for three years, though their rankings vary slightly each year.

Guangdong province shined in the rankings, as six of its cities made it into the top 30 positions this year.

The study also takes local government debt into its assessment methods, however, only a mere 14 of 289 cities release details on their local debts, according to the study.

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