On May 28, 2023, Professor Gao Jian, Director of Entrepreneurship Research Center on G20 Economies and professor at the School of Economics and Management, Tsinghua University, released the Global City Entrepreneurial Incubation Index Report at the 2023 ZGC Forum. This report was jointly completed by Entrepreneurship Research Center on G20 Economies and the Institute of Economics and Resource Management of Beijing Normal University. The report is focusing on evaluating the entrepreneurial incubation capacity of cities, aiming to provide systematic, objective, authoritative and forward-looking evaluation results for major cities around the world, and become a barometer and compass for the development of entrepreneurial incubation of global cities. The top five cities in this evaluation are New York, London, San Francisco, Beijing, and Boston.

The report decomposes the urban entrepreneurial incubation capacity and constructs an evaluation system that includes 3 primary indicators: incubation performance, incubation potential, and incubation ecology, 9 secondary indicators, and 22 tertiary indicators. Based on ensuring regional coverage and urban representativeness, a total of 40 cities worldwide were selected for evaluation and analysis based on the criteria of having a good entrepreneurial ecosystem and development potential in cities. The 40 cities include 17 in Asia (12 in China), 10 in North America, 10 in Europe, 1 in Africa, 1 in South America, and 1 in Oceania.

The main findings of the report are as follows:

1. From the evaluation results, New York, London, San Francisco, Beijing, Boston, Shenzhen, Shanghai, Tokyo, Los Angeles and Chicago ranked among the top ten of the comprehensive scores. Among them, New York, London, San Francisco, and Beijing, which are ranked in the top four, have a significant advantage, while the average scores of the other top ten cities are only 70% of the scores of the top four cities.

2.  From the perspective of the leading cities in the sub ranking, the top four cities in terms of incubation performance are Beijing, London, New York, and San Francisco. The top four cities in terms of incubation potential are Boston, New York, Beijing, and Los Angeles. The top four cities in terms of incubation ecology are New York, London, San Francisco, and Beijing.

3.  According to the evaluation of the China Urban Entrepreneurial Incubation Index, Beijing, the Yangtze River Delta urban agglomeration, and the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area are the central regions for incubation in China. Beijing leads the country in half of the specific indicators, with Shanghai, Suzhou, and Hangzhou in the Yangtze River Delta region and Shenzhen, Guangzhou, Hong Kong, and Macau in the Guangdong- Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area all having some indicators with advantages.