Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei zone: Rise of new growth engine
China Daily | Updated: 2017-02-22 10:08
A worker walks past containers at Tianjin Port in northern China on May 13, 2010. [Photo / Agencies]
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/business/2017bch/2017-02/22/content_28298757.htm
Open and innovative environment boosts investment and trade, benefits people
With the inflow of quality overseas capital and the registration of export-oriented Chinese enterprises, the Tianjin Dongjiang Free Trade Port Zone saw an export surge of 30 percent last year, in an atmosphere of sluggish trade and export globally.
Dongjiang is part of the China (Tianjin) Pilot Free Trade Zone. Last year, more than half of the registered enterprises in Dongjiang were from the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei area, stimulated by the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei synergetic development strategy.
The long-term integration not only does good to each of these three regions, but the unity brings benefits beyond imagination to the whole area, and even to the entire country, according to Yan Xuan, president of Nielsen Greater China.
"The inflow of qualified capital from home and abroad, is a testament to the attraction of an open, friendly and innovative business environment," said Zhou Mi, a senior research fellow at Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation, under the Ministry of Commerce.
In 2016, 588 foreign enterprises, with a combined registration capital of 178.8 billion yuan ($26 billion), settled in Dongjiang, seeing a year-on-year increase of 51 percent in the number of enterprises and 29 percent rise in capital.
Last year, there were 1,148 enterprises from the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei area registered in Dongjiang, which brought in 112.1 billion yuan of capital.
"We're committed to providing expertise and 'butler' service to enterprises wishing to settle here," said Shen Lei, director of administrative committee of Tianjin Dongjiang Free Trade Port Zone.
The administrative committee focuses more on the supervision and risk control in operation while giving companies much easier access to register.
"It takes just one day for any type of enterprises to register," Shen said.
An export base designed to serve Chinese enterprises' overseas development has been set up in Dongjiang.
CCCC Marine Construction& Development Co Ltd, a subsidiary of the China Communications Construction Co Ltd, registed in Dongjiang, has set off from the port in Tianjin and is carrying out revamp and expansion project at the Hong Kong International Airport.
Thanks to free-trade benefits and a series of innovative measures piloted by the Tianjin free trade zone, financial leasing and parallel import car businesses have achieved robust growth. A parallel import is a non-counterfeit product imported from another country without the permission of the intellectual property owner.
Financial leasing is an innovative way to develop industrial development by using financial tools. The leasing asset amounted to $49.22 billion in Dongjiang by the end of last year, mainly in leasing aircraft, international shipping vessels and offshore platforms.
The Tianjin free trade zone imported some 53,000 parallel imported cars, worth $2.74 billion last year. It takes 80 percent of the country's total parallel imported cars.
According to Jiang Guangjian, deputy director of the China (Tianjin) Pilot Free Trade Zone, the outbound investment by enterprises from the zone reached $12 billion last year, accounting for half of Tianjin's total.
Some 890 more foreign enterprises registered in the free trade zone last year, with those registered in Dongjiang taking half share, up 30 percent year-on-year.
Of the total 2,000 enterprises, worth 250 billion yuan, registered in Dongjiang last year, the average registered capital for a single enterprise reached 120 million yuan.
The car is the star at Hebei plant
BY ZHANG ZHAO
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/business/2017bch/2017-02/22/content_28298757_2.htm
Workers assemble vehicles at BAIC Group's Huanghua plant in Hebei on Feb 20, 2017. [Photo/Xinhua]
Every 54 seconds, a car rolls off the assembly line at Beijing Hyundai Motor's Cangzhou plant in Hebei province, one of the largest industrial project in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei integrated development strategy region.
Fully automated production lines perform functions like stamping, welding, painting and assembly procedures, as well as engine manufacturing, facilitating such a fast rate of production.
Thanks to strong support from the provincial and Cangzhou city governments, the project was approved in less than 100 days, and production started in October 2016 after 18 months of construction. The construction of a factory on such a scale usually lasts 24 to 30 months elsewhere in the world, according to Lang Jiawei, deputy general manager of Beijing Hyundai, a 50-50 joint venture between South Korean carmaker Hyundai Motor Co and Beijing Automotive Industry Holding Co Ltd.
As the fourth Beijing Hyundai factory and the first outside Beijing, the Cangzhou plant cost 12 billion yuan ($1.7 billion) and covers an area of 191 hectares. It is designed to produce 300,000 cars annually along with 200,000 engines.
The plant has brought both economical and social benefits, Lang said. "The project leads to the development of auto parts manufacturing, which will become a future major industry in Cangzhou."
The plant has attracted nearly 20 leading auto parts makers as well as many auto service providers into the Cangzhou auto industry park.
The auto and auto parts industries will provide more than 6,000 jobs to Cangzhou locals, and the value from related businesses, including service trade, car financing and logistics, is expected to reach 100 billion yuan, according to the company.
By the end of 2018, Cangzhou will have an annual manufacturing capacity of 1 million cars with output value of 80 billion yuan. The auto parts industry will generate 50 billion yuan, and auto service business 5 billion yuan at that time.
Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei cooperative industrial projects will help Hebei to enhance its industrial capacity and optimize its economic structure, said Gong Xiaofeng, director of the Industry and Information Technology Department of Hebei province.
He said: "The coordinated industrial development projects have granted us opportunities. We have been actively building platforms to carry on industrial projects relocated from Beijing and Tianjin to speed up Hebei's industrial restructuring and upgrading."
Last year, a number of seminars, exhibitions and campaigns were held to promote more than 400 cooperative projects with total contracted value of nearly 1 trillion yuan. More than 100 such events will be organized this year, Gong said.
Chinese Winter Olympics warms local businesses
By ZHANG YU in Shijiazhuang
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/business/2017bch/2017-02/22/content_28298757_3.htm
Ski lovers receive training at a ski resort in Chongli, Hebei province, on Dec 10, 2016. [Photo/Xinhua]
The booming snow-related tourism, as a result of the upcoming Beijing-Hebei Winter Olympics, has brought positive changes for Hebei's residents.
Bai Liping said he loved skiing, though not an expert in the sport, because ski-fueled snow-tourism in Zhangjiakou has brought him job security.
He runs a small restaurant that serves local cuisine in Chongli district, Zhangjiakou, in North China's Hebei province, where most of the snow-based events of the 2022 Winter Olympics will be held.
Bai said: "My cousin encouraged me to open the restaurant in 2014 when the bid for the Olympics made Chongli famous and her own restaurant became crowded with tourists and ski lovers."
Tempted by the idea of a restaurant full of paying customers, he gave up his old job as a truck driver.
"It was dangerous because I had to keep driving trucks for a long time each day."
But Bai's decision turned out to be right. Tables in his restaurant were always full during the ski season.
"For this season, tourists eating in my restaurant increased by roughly 50 percent compared with the same period last year," Bai said.
According to Bai, most of his customers were from neighboring Beijing and Tianjin.
The integrated development of Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei province－a national strategy started in 2014－makes it convenient for people in Beijing and Tianjin to go to Zhangjiakou because of better transportation links.
According to Dereck Ji, a senior partner of Roland Berger Strategy Consultants, hosting the Games is going to accelerate the implementation of pollution control measures and introduce more measures to improve the region's environment.
Also, a high-speed railway between the capital and Zhangjiakou is under construction.
It will take only 50 minutes or so to take the train when completed in 2019, as planned, much faster than the current three hours' drive.
Zhangjiakou, together with Beijing, succeeded in bidding for the 2022 Winter Games in 2015.
The successful bid made Zhangjiakou a key point on the integrated transportation map of the region.
Apart from the high-speed railway, two new railways and two new expressways linking Beijing, Zhangjiakou, and their neighboring cities are under construction.
Last year, Zhangjiakou brought in 106 projects transferred from the capital with an investment of 38.5 billion yuan ($5.6 billion).
During the Spring Festival holiday (Jan27-Feb2), Zhangjiakou received 2.4 million tourists from home and abroad, up by 29.37 percent compared with the same period last year, according to the Zhangjiakou Tourism Bureau.
China's 'Silicon Valley' expands
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/business/2017bch/2017-02/22/content_28298757_4.htm
By ZHANG ZHAO
Staffers at work for a company that is located in the Tianjin (Binhai) Zhongguancun Science Park. [Photo/Xinhua]
Widely known as "China's Silicon Valley", the Zhongguancun technology hub in Beijing has been expanded into the nearby Hebei province and Tianjin in an attempt to integrate resources and talent from the three regions, as per the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei integrated development strategy.
Founded in Hebei in April 2015, the Baoding Zhongguancun Innovation Center is the first of its kind to be built outside Beijing. About 90 companies and startup teams have opened offices in the center, half of which are from the Chinese capital.
Hu Dehui, general manager of the center, said: "We are dedicated to implementing the innovation culture of Zhongguan into the projects. In that culture, change is the only thing unchanged, and innovation happens at all times."
Founded in 2016, the Jiuwu Boron Industry Co at the center focuses on the research and application of boron-related technologies.
An Zefang, chairman of the company, said boron can be used in agriculture, medicines, military and the nuclear industry, but at the moment few companies were involved in the business, so the market is very promising.
His company's current annual output value is about 100 million yuan ($14.6 million), but the Zhongguancun Innovation Center has helped him to find a local chemical company as a partner to invest 1.8 billion yuan to build a new boron fertilizer plant, which will increase the company's annual output value to 600 million yuan.
An said he visited other industry parks before deciding to move to the center.
He said: "Officials from the Zhongguancun administrative committee are active to offer help, and we can get access to more and better resources, including senior experts, on the platform."
The Tianjin Binhai Zhongguancun high-tech park is much younger. Founded in November 2016, it registered more than 30 companies in the first two months, in addition to another nearly 40 that are in the process of being approved.
Some Beijing-based IT giants are building facilities in the area, including the Baidu innovation center, which is designed to provide training and promotion for startups.
"We will learn from the experiences of Beijing Zhongguancun, but that does not mean we will copy them," said Jin Donghu, executive director of the Tianjin Binhai Zhongguancun hi-tech park.
"We will develop a new business and a new model. We will become link between Beijing, the innovation center, and Tianjin, the manufacturing base."
Tianjin Jinghua Technology Co Ltd has an unmanned aerial vehicle team in the park, working on exploration and aerial photography. A new company will be set up based on his team.
Dai Tao, head of team, said they have close ties with Beijing Zhongguancun.
He said: "We often have experts from Beijing in to offer training, as the UAV business in Beijing is more developed. We tell the Binhai Zhongguancun administration what we need, and they will seek help for us."
Their current clients are mostly in Tianjin, but they plan to expand their service to cover North China, he said.
Local economies upgraded as new high-tech centers open
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/business/2017bch/2017-02/22/content_28298757_5.htm
By CHEN MEILING and ZHANG ZHAO
The first Beijing-Tianjin intercity tourist railway line is launched on June 15, 2016. WEITONG / FOR CHINA DAILY
The Beijing Zoo clothes market, one of the biggest garment wholesale centers in North China, has been in operation since the 1980s. During its heyday, more than 80,000 people used to come to buy clothes from 13,000 stalls every day. Part of the market is now known as Baolan Financial Innovation Center and home to five financial and high-tech enterprises.
Many garment vendors have signed the agreement to move to newly planned trade centers located in Baoding, Cangzhou, Langfang and other cities in Hebei province.
The relocation project is expected to be completed by the end of this year.
The plan has not only reduced the number of daily visitors to 10,000 and saved space of about 163,000 sq m, but also led to upgrading of the local economy, according to the government of Beijing's Xicheng district.
X Control System Co Ltd settled into Baolan Financial Innovation Center in late 2016, focusing on the research and development of large military and industrial unmanned aerial vehicles.
Gu Xiaozheng, vice-president of the company, said its UAVs had roughly 20 patents and its flight control system occupied 60 percent of the domestic industrial UAV market.
"Our devices can fly for maximum 2.5 hours carrying 25 kilograms. Not many competitors can do that," he said, adding that their annual sales revenue is 10 million yuan ($1.5 million).
Li Shixiang, vice-mayor of Beijing said at a recent meeting on Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei integrated development that the removal of wholesale markets, including the Beijing Zoo clothes market, is a part of relieving industries that failed to serve the core function of the city.
As the capital, Beijing should focus on developing high-grade, precision and advanced industries instead of covering all ranges of industries, he said.
"We should keep the heart of the cabbage and cut away the other parts."
The saved space will be used in construction, technological and cultural development and improvement of ecological environment of Beijing, he added.
The Cangzhou Mingzhu Trade City, opened in August 2014, is one of the major destinations for the former clothes wholesalers of Beijing. The project is located just one hour's journey from Beijing by high-speed train.
Its first phase, covering 580,000 sqm of floored space, has been completed. More than 7,000 vendors have signed an agreement to move in and about 800 have started operations already.
Yu Guiting, chairman of Dongsu Group, an investor and operator in the trade zone, said: "We want to create a new business model that combines designing, processing, logistics, wholesale and retail, e-business, leisure and tourism."
Yu said the cost of running a shop in Cangzhou was only 10 percent of that in Beijing because of lower rent and management fees.
Huang Yinfeng, 45, runs a 200 sq m shop at Mingzhu Trade City. She had sold clothes in Beijing for nearly 20 years, and is one of the earliest vendors to move the business to Cangzhou.
"I visited many destinations and finally decided to move to Cangzhou because of better policies," she said.
According to an agreement signed with the local government in October 2016, Dongsu Group will invest 35 billion yuan to build a creative industry park centering around the garment business. It is expected to generate annual revenue of about 200 billion yuan from clothes processing and wholesale trade and create 200,000 jobs.
What they say
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/business/2017bch/2017-02/22/content_28298757_6.htm
The integrated and synergetic development of Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei province has improved local people's lives, allowing them to have a sense of having benefited from the initiative. Residents in Beijing have acquired more green fields, better public services and resources. For those living in Tianjin and Hebei, the strategy has generated more jobs, and better links have made travel and transport more convenient.
Cai Qi, Beijing Mayor [Photo/VCG]
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For the first time, Hebei province, as a whole, is included in a national strategy, which will bring it deep and all-round change. To implement the synergetic development strategy, we have to ensure the two areas of innovative concepts and creation of optimized business environment are addressed adequately.
Zhao Kezhi, Party chief of Hebei province [Photo/VCG]
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The Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei synergetic development requires administrative and social management models different from existing ones. We have to carry out reconstructive reforms and promote innovation in administration, and break down all barriers that stop market integration.
Li Hongzhong, Party chief of Tianjin [Photo/VCG]
