Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region deepens cooperation

Beijing, nearby Tianjin and Hebei province have made marked progress in industrial cooperation over the past six years, according to a report released by the National Bureau of Statistics in December.

The capital was developing more advanced sectors and its tertiary industry played an especially dominant role, the report shows.

In late 2018, the proportion of the tertiary sector to Beijing's total companies in the industrial and service businesses reached 93.9 percent, 15.1 percentage points higher than the national average and 11.8 percentage points higher than the average in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region.

Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei province have also made achievements in industrial collaboration and integration. Multi-sector legal entities from each of the three provincial economies have set up more business operations in the other two regions by the end of 2018 than before.

In late 2018, such establishments in the three regions tallied 16,000, up 180.2 percent from late 2013.

Beijing-based legal entities had 12,000 establishments in Tianjin and Hebei, representing a surge of 225.9 percent from the end of 2013 and 108.9 percentage points more than Tianjin-based organizations and 170.6 percentage points more than Hebei-based groups.

Of cross-region business operations in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, modern services have gradually become a popular investment sector.

There were 4,000 cross-region establishments in the retail and wholesale industry and the hotels and catering service, accounting for 25.9 percent of the total of such establishments.

About 7,000 cross-region establishments in Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei are involved in leasing and commercial service, scientific research and technology, information transmission software or information technology service.

Insiders said making functional orientations of the three regions clear is a prerequisite for scientifically promoting the collaborative development of Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei.

The three regions have created a new pattern for regional collaborative development in the country, the insiders said.

Different from previous regional collaborative developments, the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei cooperation is driven by innovation, professionals and quality. That's according to Yang Kaizhong, deputy head at the Institute for Urban and Environmental Studies of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, who made his remarks to Beijing-based China Economic Weekly.

The Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei collaboration disperses Beijing's noncapital functions to develop a regional innovation community, Yang said.

The three regions have also faced an unbalanced development for a long time, insiders said. Beijing and Tianjin have been seen as too "fat", while Hebei was considered too "weak", they said, adding that Beijing had been nagged by metropolitan problems such as traffic jams and environmental pollution, due to its numerous functions.

The Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei collaborative development became an important national strategy in 2014.

A planning outline defined the three regions' function orientations, development plans and major measures in 2015.

According to the outline, Beijing is positioned as a national center of politics, culture, international exchanges and scientific and technological innovation.

Tianjin is a national hub of advanced manufacturing and research and development, a key international shipping area in northern China, a demonstration area for financial innovation and a pilot area of reform and opening-up.

Hebei is a nationally important center for modern commerce, trade and logistics, an experimental area for industrial transformation and upgrading, a demonstration area for new urbanization and overall urban-rural development and a supporting area for the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei ecology.