More industrial parks planned for Tianjin Binhai New Area

Tianjin's Binhai New Area plans to build more industrial parks, in an effort to shift the non-capital function of Beijing and boost the integrated development of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, the local government announced on Wednesday.

These include an industrial park built between the coastal area and Beijing's high-tech hub, Zhongguancun, an advanced industrial park through collaboration with the European Union Chamber of Commerce, a North China aviation center and a petroleum production center.

The Sino-European Regional Collaboration Park will focus on intelligent equipment manufacturing and ocean economy.

The North China aviation hub will work with major airports in Beijing, Tianjin and North China's Hebei province.

The petroleum center will attract companies from these three areas and feature a waterway with a loading capacity of 100,000 tons.

Wu Xiushan, deputy head of the reform and development committee of the Binhai New Area, said that the new area provided 90,000 square meters for Zhongguancun Park alone last year. The park has attracted 941 companies with investment of up to 10.4 billion yuan ($1.5 billion) so far.

"We are tackling the challenges of overlapping and competition between industrial parks and blind expansion, as Binhai has already seen a number of industrial parks taken shape," he said.

"Moreover, many companies once had a presence in Zhongguancun, so the new industrial parks in Binhai should help companies blaze new trails for growth," he said.

Statistics indicated that since 2015, the area has lured 1,699 projects with a combined investment of up to 392 billion yuan ($58.4 billion).

In 2018, the area attracted 591 such projects with investment of up to 115.5 billion yuan.

Yin Li, CEO of Tianjin Carale Co, said his company was set up in 2014 in Zhongguancun, but moved to Binhai last year. He expects the new area could give more preferential policies to micro or small and medium-sized companies to help them with fundraising.

Jian Jiaqiang, general manager of the Tianjin Port-Sunlon Agricultural Products Import and Export Co Ltd, said as the company is catering for the China Xiongan Construction Group construction team, the logistics will be very demanding.

"Every day our products should arrive in Xiongan (in Hebei province) within 24 hours," said him, adding that he hopes transportation facilities will be improved.