Economic cluster in North China booming

Over the past nine years, the coordinated development of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region in North China has yielded remarkable results, especially in the fields of economic development, industrial upgrading, traffic integration and environmental improvement, authorities said.

In early 2014, the country initiated a key strategy to coordinate the development of Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei province — a regional economic cluster.

The region's combined GDP exceeded 10 trillion yuan ($1.4 trillion) last year, 1.8 times that of 2013 in current prices, according to the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Statistics.

The GDP of both Beijing and Hebei reached 4.2 trillion yuan last year — and 1.7 times that of 2013, respectively. Tianjin's GDP of 1.6 trillion yuan last year was 1.6 times that of 2013.

Last year, Tianjin brought in investment of 198.94 billion yuan from Beijing and Hebei, while more than 4,000 companies or institutions from Beijing and Tianjin resettled in Hebei. Since 2014, more than 40,000 business units have settled in the province, mainly from the capital, the bureau reported.

The core areas of Beijing, Tianjin and Xiong'an New Area — a new economic area of Hebei — are accessible within half an hour. Development is accelerating to form a 1- to 1.5-hour traffic circle between major cities in the region, according to the Hebei Department of Transport.

In the environmental sector, annual PM2.5 density decreased by more than 60 percent from 2013 in Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei.

The capital's average concentration of PM2.5 fell to 30 micrograms per cubic meter last year, according to the Beijing Municipal Ecology and Environment Bureau.

In Hebei last year, the average density of PM2.5 dropped to 36.8 micrograms per cubic meter, according to the provincial Department of Ecology and Environment.