Ningbo in East China's Zhejiang province has overtaken Shenzhen to rank third nationwide in the number of "little giants".

In July, 127 companies from the city were included on the list of the third batch of "little giants" released by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT), bringing the total number of such enterprises in Ningbo to 182.

China is currently home to 4,762 "little giants", which are mainly located in its eastern areas. Shanghai topped the nation with 262 "little giants", followed by Beijing (257), Ningbo (182), Shenzhen (169), Tianjin (130), Chongqing (118), Chengdu (107), Qingdao (97), Xiamen (79), and Dongguan (79).

The companies from Ningbo were primarily from sectors like high-end equipment, new materials, new energy, and industrial internet.

In terms of geographic distribution, Yinzhou ranked first in the city with 34 "little giants", followed by Cixi (30), Zhenhai (25), Beilun (24), Yuyao (18), Fenghua (14), Jiangbei (12), Haishu (11), Xiangshan (9), and Ninghai (5).

Only 11 of these companies have gone public, among which nine companies' market value was below the average market value of 311 listed "little giants" in China, which stood at 9.84 billion yuan ($1.51 billion).

"Little giants" refer to industry leaders recognized by the MIIT with excellent innovation capabilities, large market shares, core technologies, as well as high product quality and profitability.

Ningbo has set the goal of increasing the number of "little giants" in the city to 1,000 by the end of 2025.

(Editor: Yu Fei)