Tianjin betting on industrial restructuring for GDP growth

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Tianjin Economic and Technological Development Area 

Tianjin will give top priority to industrial restructuring as part of the ongoing efforts by the northern port city to sustain annual GDP growth. Tianjin's renewed focus came after its GDP growth fell to 3.6% last year from double-digit growth in the preceding years.

During the first six months of this year, the city's GDP edged up by 1.5% compared with the first quarter, growing 3.4% to reach 992.7 billion yuan, showing signs of a slight recovery.

Tianjin posts 3.4% GDP growth during first 6 months

Decluttering Beijing's industries and trying to transfer competitive sectors including intelligent sectors, part of the efforts to implement the synergic development strategy for Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei province, is now a key effort to restructure Tianjin's industrial layout.

The effort is expected to pay off to help reverse Tianjin's downward GDP and the city revealed an ambitious target to build itself into an "intelligent coastal port", said Sun Hujun, deputy head of Tianjin Municipal Development and Reform Commission.

A prime example is the Tianjin Economic and Technological Development Area (TEDA), which has attracted 238 Beijing companies during the first half with contractual investment value of up to 74.2 billion yuan.

According to Zheng Weiming, director of the administrative committee of TEDA, the area is highly "selective" in its industrial transfer campaign as it wants to ensure quality GDP growth. As a result, most of the firms in the area are from central State-owned companies, and also include emerging intelligence projects from JD and Baidu.

Zheng, however, admitted that, despite the selective approach, the area logged the highest GDP growth in the city of 7.3%.

A visitor looks at an unmanned aerial vehicle of DJI on the 2nd World Intelligence Congress held in Tianjin on May 18, 2018

Liu Gang, director of Economic Research Institute at Nankai University in Tianjin, indicated that the city s' previous economy was highly dependent on investment and heavy industries. But it needs to move on to a new path driven by smart technology upgrading, he added.

"China has strong demand to boost intelligent industries and Tianjin can cater to the demand by helping move industries from Beijing," he said.

To this end, the city unveiled a package of polices in mid-June, ranging from enterprises' smart upgrading, cutting-edge internet transformation, as well as development in robotics, integrated circuit, software, information services to big data sectors.

Each relevant project could hit up to 50 million yuan and there are no limits for eligible companies to seek funding.

天津押注产业结构调整以促进GDP增长

作为北方港口城市持续努力维持年度GDP增长的一部分，天津将把产业结构调为重中之重。

在去年GDP增长率从前几年的两位数增长率降至3.6%之后，天津重新关注焦点。

今年上半年，全市国内生产总值比第一季度微升1.5个百分点，增长3.4%，达到9,927亿元人民币(1457亿美元)，显示出轻微复苏的迹象。

整顿北京的工业，并试图转移包括智能部门在内的竞争性部门，这是实施北京，天津和河北省协同发展战略的一部分，现在是重组天津工业布局的关键举措。

天津市发展和改革委员会副主任孙虎军表示，预计这项努力将有助于扭转天津下行的国内生产总值，并且该市显示了一个雄心勃勃的目标，即建设一个“智能沿海港口”。

一个典型的例子是天津经济技术开发区(TEDA)，上半年吸引了238家北京公司，合同投资额高达742亿元。

根据天津开发区管理委员会主任郑伟明的说法，该地区在产业转移活动中具有高度“选择性”，因为它希望确保优质的GDP增长。因此，该地区的大多数公司来自中央国有公司，还包括来自JD和百度的新兴情报项目。

然而，郑承认，尽管采取了选择性方法，该地区的GDP增长率最高，为7.3%。

南开大学经济研究所所长刘刚表示，该市以前的经济高度依赖投资和重工业。但他补充说，它需要走上由智能技术升级推动的新道路。

“中国对推动智能产业的需求强劲，天津可以通过帮助北京转移产业来满足需求，”他说。

为此，该市于6月中旬公布了一揽子政策，包括企业的智能升级，尖端的互联网转型，以及机器人技术，集成电路，软件，信息服务和大数据领域的发展。

每个相关项目可能达到5000万元，合格公司没有限制寻求资金。

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Business Tianjin 2018 August Issue

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