In the index, London, New York and Tokyo gain the top three spots, followed by Chicago, Hong Kong and Singapore. Shanghai ranks number 32 with an aggregate score of 50.33, and Beijing was 46.

The index incorporates six factors of commercial strength, which are political and legal framework (10 percent), economic stability (10 percent), ease of doing business (20 percent), financial flow (22 percent), knowledge and information flow (22 percent), and business center (16 percent).

Each of the six dimensions consists of indicators, and each one is made up of sub-indicators. A total of 41 indicators and over 100 sub-indicators make up the index.

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Shanghai ranks 11st in the dimension of financial flow and 10th in business center. The sub-indicators of these two dimensions include the difficulties of starting and closing a business, employing workers, air traffic, and commercial real estate.

Zhu Delin, a professor from Shanghai Finance University's finance department said, "Though Shanghai remains the financial center on the Chinese mainland, it has some shortcomings compared with other large world cities and even within the Asia-Pacific region."

In the aspect of ease of doing business, Shanghai only scored 64.46 and ranked 46th among the 50 cities. Three Canadian cities Vancouver, Toronto and Montreal ranked the top three. This criterion involves many detailed sub-indicators such as the number of cinemas, banking services and company liability.

Even though there is little relationship between cinemas and commerce centers, Zhu said Shanghai should be keener on promoting its overall financial service level.

In terms of knowledge and information flow, economic stability, as well as political and legal framework, Shanghai ranks 38th, 32nd and 39th respectively. Zhu says that if Shanghai fails to reform and improve its legal system, it cannot successfully compete with other Asian cities.

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