China moves to create first-class business environment in Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region

BEIJING - China's top economic planner unveiled a three-year action plan on Monday to create a first-class business environment in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, especially the Xiong'an New Area.

Over the next three years, China expects to remove barriers hindering the flow and allocation of production factors, improve services for trade, investment and government affairs, and lower institutional transaction costs in the region, according to the National Development and Reform Commission.

The plan aims to further regulate the region's market environment and address the issues of local protectionism and market fragmentation by optimizing business registration management, strengthening collaboration in fair competition review, and enhancing intra-region innovation cooperation.

Efforts will also be made to protect the legitimate interests of business entities in the region, unify regulatory enforcement standards and deepen judicial cooperation, it said.

Government services will be made more convenient, with data sharing strengthened and both offline and online services integrated, while public services like education, healthcare and human resources will be jointly developed and shared by Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei.

The region will pursue high-level opening up in a collaborative manner, according to the plan. The collaborative development of digital trade will be advanced, services for foreign firms will be improved and the region's trade will be further liberalized and facilitated.

For the Xiong'an New Area, the government is expected to provide better services to enterprises, key sectors will open wider, and more will be done to support innovation and entrepreneurship, said the document.

The plan pledged to further reform investment project approval, further open up the area's financial sector, support qualified foreign institutions with their operations in areas such as green finance, elderly care and asset management, and encourage professionals from Beijing to work and start businesses in Xiong'an.

China initiated the strategy of coordinating the development of the national capital of Beijing and neighboring Tianjin municipality and Hebei province in early 2014, with the aim of creating a model with a better economic structure, a cleaner environment and improved public services.

The region's gross domestic product expanded 90 percent in 2023 compared to the level in 2013, official data shows. Over 7,000 standards spanning various fields have been shared within the region as of May this year.