The High Desert city of Lancaster has won the annual “most business friendly city” in L.A. County award from the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corp., it was announced late Tuesday.

Lancaster was one of six finalist cities in the county to win special recognition for their attempts to create a business-friendly atmosphere. The other finalists were: Burbank, Cerritos, Long Beach, Palmdale and Santa Clarita. For the second consecutive year, the county’s largest city, Los Angeles, failed to make the cut.

The L.A. County Economic Development Corp. launched the business-friendly cities competition last year as a way to shine a spotlight on what cities are doing to offset the high cost of doing business in the region. El Segundo won that first contest.

This year, the panel of regional economic development professionals chose the Antelope Valley city of Lancaster for its moves to fast-track development and business permits, set up a Mayor’s Roundtable on business issues and offer incentives to businesses that locate in its enterprise and recycling market development zones. The city, which has 143,000 residents, has claimed the creation of roughly 5,000 new jobs as a result of its pro-business attitude.

“The City of Lancaster best represents what can be achieved when our city governments work side-by-side with the business community to create business-friendly environments where quality jobs can grow,” said Bill Allen, president and chief executive of the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corp.

Separately, at its annual awards ceremony, the LAEDC bestowed its own chief economist, Jack Kyser, with the Eddy award for exceptional contributions to positive economic development in the region.