The central business district of Beijing. [Photo/IC]

Beijing, Hong Kong and Shanghai rounded out the top 10 of the Global Cities Index, according to a report by Kearney, the US-based management consulting firm, the Paper reported.

Comprised of the Global Cities Index and the Global Cities Outlook, the report released Monday offered key insights on how COVID-19 and the resulting pandemic containment measures have impacted the level of global engagement of 156 cities around the world.

Although initially hit hardest by COVID-19 because of high connectivity and density, the leading global cities still demonstrated their resilience, the report said.

New York, London, Paris, and Tokyo retained the top four positions in the Index for five years in a row, and Los Angeles broke into the top five.

Among the 31 Chinese cities included this year, Beijing ranked sixth, and Shanghai rose two places to break into the top 10 for the first time, due to its robust business activities amid the post-pandemic era. The city's ranking has increased 10 spots in the past five years.

Southern cities Guangzhou and Shenzhen ranked 61 and 72, rising two and three spots, respectively.

The ranking of Hangzhou, Chengdu, Suzhou, Xi'an, Changsha and Jinan also went up compared to last year.

It is worth noting in the report that all cities, except those in China, saw their average Global Cities Index score increasing less than one percent, or even experiencing negative growth.

However, the figure of China reached over 3 percent, thanks to its effective pandemic prevention and control measures.

This year's results made it clear that the most globally connected cities were also the most vulnerable to COVID impacts, said Wang Yu, the global partner of Kearney Strategy Consultants.

He also noted that a city's long-term competitiveness lies in its attractiveness to skillful labor force, highly-educated talents and young generation.

In the Global Cities Outlook, London retained its top spot, followed by Paris, Munich and Abu Dhabi. Chinese cities were on the ascent, with Guangzhou, Shanghai, Shenzhen, Chongqing and Suzhou seeing their rankings move more than 10 spots up, in comparison with 2020.

China's score in this sector rose 3.35 percent from 2016 to 2021, the highest among all regions in the world, and its gap between Europe and North America has also reduced further.

According to Kearney, the Global Cities Index measures how globally engaged cities are across five dimensions: business activity, human capital, information exchange, cultural experience, and political engagement.

Global Cities Outlook is a forward-looking evaluation of how the cities are creating conditions for their future status as global hubs. Thirteen indicators are applied to evaluate a city's potential for long-term success, such as healthcare, inequality, ease of doing business, infrastructure development, and investment.