Qingdao, a coastal city in Shandong province, makes it to the top-10 list for the first time after it hosted the sailing events of the Beijing Olympic Games last summer.

The seventh edition of the Blue Book on Urban Competitiveness was launched yesterday by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS).

"Urbanization will become the major force behind China's economic growth in

?the next 30 years," Yao Jingyuan, chief economist with the National Bureau of Statistics, said at the book launch on Tuesday.

He added that the annual report provides useful information for policy makers on the country's urbanization drive.

The top 10 cities are from the Pearl River Delta, the Yangtze River Delta, the Bohai Sea Rim area and Taiwan, the most robust city clusters, the report said.

But in the global context, the competitiveness of Chinese cities is lagging. Hong Kong, Shenzhen and Shanghai are listed only 26th, 64th and 41st on the Global Urban Competitiveness Report.