Binhai rolling out host of new projects

Core district of Tianjin in critical position to boost cooperation with Beijing, Hebei

Binhai New Area in North China's Tianjin municipality will introduce at least 1,000 investment projects this year as part of its effort to deepen reform and opening-up, thus building a prosperous, livable and smart new town.

The State-level new area has played a pioneering role in the country's comprehensive reform and innovation and houses the China (Tianjin) Pilot Free Trade Zone, the first free trade zone in North China. Meanwhile, as a core district of Tianjin, the new area is in a critical position for the cooperation among Tianjin, its neighbors Beijing and Hebei province, as well as a major destination for industrial transfer from the capital.

According to the local government, it has accelerated the development of the Binhai-Zhongguancun Science and Technology Park to create a similar entrepreneurial atmosphere as that of in Zhongguancun, China's most Silicon Valley-like innovation zone in Beijing.

The new area aims to take over 500 projects transferred from the capital this year, the local government said.

The professional investment attraction teams of Binhai will also target the world's top 500 companies, top 500 private companies, startups worth more than $1 billion and industrial leaders to make sure they succeed in their goal of attracting more than 1,000 quality investment projects this year.

It will concentrate its efforts to make several industries much stronger, including modern manufacturing, high-end services, innovative finance and tourism, the local government said.

The official blueprint shows that the new area will build a world-class advanced manufacturing base for Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region.

Senior officials of the new area have reiterated the importance of optimizing the manufacturing layout, and of attracting and nurturing leading projects in a more targeted way, to provide strong support for the development of the world-class city cluster.

For the high-end modern service industry, the new area plans to bolster the headquarters economy and mainly target the headquarters of the top 500 companies globally and domestically, the second- or third-tier headquarters of State-owned conglomerates and their settlement centers. High-grade commercial buildings are ready to serve them.

Regarding the innovative finance industry, the new area will further expand the scale of financial leasing, industrial funds and equity funds.

One of the major innovative projects in the finance sector is the insurance industrial park in the airport economic zone, which has witnessed the settlement of more than 40 insurance company headquarters or their branches, including domestic heavyweights, to form a full industrial chain and launch new, innovative products.

The project-attracting efforts will be strengthened to make the industrial park bigger and stronger, as shown atop the government's agenda.

The new area also plans to accelerate the development of tourism; for example, through the opening of the national oceanic museum and a group of demonstrative communities for the nighttime economy, such as the Yujiapu Global Shopping Mall.

As the central business district of Binhai New Area, Yujiapu launched the shopping mall in 2015 to provide commodities from around the globe. It consists of an underground global shopping street, an automobile theme park, a cultural and creative community, a sightseeing entertainment and a sports experience center.

By the end of 2018, the shopping street had received 6.5 million visitors, the official data indicate.

Deepening reform

According to the local government, the new area will carry out reforms in several fields - including making the operation of the new area more market-oriented with a company management style, reforming the human resources and income systems, and optimizing the investment attraction system - making the area more efficient, energetic and friendly for investors.

The local government is also engaged in improving the business environment, especially for the private economy.

It is encouraging financial institutes to render more support to private companies to ease their funding needs and open the government procurement wider to make sure that no less than 30 percent of budgets will go to the micro, small and medium-sized companies.

The government said it also aims to upgrade the function of the free trade zone and fulfill 128 systematic innovation tasks this year.

To reinforce its position as a shipping center in North China, the new area government will support Tianjin Port in becoming smarter, further shorten the customs clearance time and lower reasonable costs to become an oceanic gateway for the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei cluster.