Benefits gained via regional coordination

BEIJING, April 29, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — This is a report from China Daily:

Workers at HBIS check rolls of aluminized metal.[ZHAO HUI/FOR CHINA DAILY]

Aiming to become a hub for the coordinated development of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region and bolster high-quality development of Xiong'an New Area, North China's Hebei province is focusing on creating a regional collaborative innovation community and striving to absorb the spillover effects of science, technology and industry from Beijing and Tianjin.

Currently, Hebei's Xiong'an New Area is at a key stage of realizing large-scale construction and undertaking the relocation of noncapital functions from Beijing.

Centering on innovative thinking and new concepts, the province is carrying out the comprehensive support policies of the central government, ensuring that children's education, salaries and housing provident funds in Xiong'an are not lower than in Beijing.

Construction of the headquarters for the first batch of four relocated central enterprises has been accelerated; three schools supported by Beijing have started classes; and construction of four relocated universities and the Xiong'an branch of Peking University People's Hospital has commenced.

Since 2023, the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region has focused on the coordinated development of key industry chains such as hydrogen energy, new energy, and intelligent connected vehicles, forming more than 200 technology-related tasks and a list of over 200 targeted enterprises for investment attraction.

Several companies chose to base its research and development activities in Beijing and production in Hebei and Tianjin.

Beijing Guohua Technology Group is one of them. It integrates the R&D of new coal preparation processes and equipment, engineering design and contracting, and coal preparation equipment manufacturing.

In 2018, the group optimized its layout in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, keeping its headquarters and R&D center in Beijing while establishing production facilities in Tangshan, Hebei.

It also founded a clean coal technology company in the Tangshan Hi-tech Industrial Development Zone that year.

"Taking the high-speed train from Tangshan to Beijing is very convenient and this is an important reason why the company's headquarters set up a subsidiary here," said Meng Lingyun, general manager of the Tangshan-based company.

Meng added that the increasingly convenient rail transportation not only allows them to better communicate with the headquarters but helps them expand their business nationwide, injecting vitality into the high-quality development of the company.

To bolster the development of new quality productive forces and build advanced industrial systems, Hebei is ramping up efforts to integrate into the new development pattern of China's modernization with local characteristics.

Ni Yuefeng, secretary of the Hebei Provincial Committee of the Communist Party of China, noted that as the region surrounding the national capital, "Hebei will inject new vitality into high-quality economic and social development and continue to make remarkable achievements in the new era."

"We are striving to blaze new trails in boosting innovation-driven growth while taking more responsibilities in advancing the coordinated development of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region and the high-standard, high-quality construction of the Xiong'an New Area," added Ni.

During a recent visit to the HBIS-POSCO automotive steel sheet project, a joint venture between Shijiazhuang-based HBIS Group, one of the largest steelmakers and integrated service providers in China, and South Korean steelmaker POSCO, Ni expressed the need to fully leverage the province's unique advantages, empower advanced manufacturing, ensure major technological upgrades and promote large-scale equipment renewal to propel the high-end, intelligent and green development of the manufacturing industry.

The project, which was completed and put into operation in Hebei's Tangshan city last October, utilizes a high-strength ultra-thin automotive steel sheet production process that significantly reduces the weight of car body while extending the service life of the body and components, achieving energy saving and carbon reduction from a whole-life-circle perspective.

"We must firmly grasp the major national strategy of coordinated development in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, strengthen collaborative innovation and industrial cooperation, vigorously boost the deep integration of sci-tech and industrial innovation, and foster emerging industries such as new energy, new materials and robotics in a targeted manner," Ni said.

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