Beijing, Tianjin Plan Economic Integration and
Expansion
Officials from Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei province gathered
in Beijing on May 17 to discuss how they could plan economic
expansion and attract more businesses to invest in northern
China. The officials conceded that there is far more business
investment in the Pearl River delta, centered on Guangzhou,
and the Yangtze River region, based in Shanghai, than
there is in north China.
The talks included representatives from the Hebei cities
of Chengde and Langfang, and five other cities. The two
major metropolises of Beijing and Tianjin are connected
by a major highway. The current plan is to attract new
businesses to the area along the Beijing - Tianjin Highway
to create a new business axis linking the two cities.
The term business axis is a reference to the ring roads
which run around Beijing. As the city has expanded, the
city has rapidly added ring roads. In 1985 there was only
one ring road; now there are six.
The Beijing representatives spoke of a "3+2"
plan. The 3 referred to Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei, and
the resources of Inner Mongolia and part of Shandong province.
Inner Mongolia and Shandong are strong agricultural producers,
particularly in meat and dairy products. The 2 referred
to the two supercities of Beijing and Tianjin. Beijing,
because of the presence of leading universities, has a
strong presence in computer hardware and software development,
while Tianjin has modern port facilities. Because of its
close geographical proximity, Tianjin has close economic
and cultural ties with Japan and South Korea.
Through the meeting, both city and countryside officials
emphasized their commitment to developing green, or environmentally
friendly, businesses and industries. This stood in contrast
to the highly industrialized Shanghai and Guangzhou regions,
which have thousands of factories.
In agriculture, the regions emphasized their commitment
to developing green industries and organic products. Officials
in China's more developed east coast are now encouraging
development of environmentally-friendly industries, which
has meant that higher pollution, less environmentally
industries are now moving inland to the less developed
regions of the country. Some officials, when speaking
of their cities or regions, even talk about a "green
GDP" in which the polluting industries are removed
from their GDP calculations.
In recent years, the green movement has affected agriculture.
The most prosperous farmers in recent years have been
tree farmers, who sell their trees to the government so
that deforested areas can be replenished.
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