Province Looks to Tap into Success of Neighbors

Province's Party chief hoping to lure businesses from Beijing and Tianjin

Hebei, the province that has traditionally provided all-round support for the development of Beijing and Tianjin, is now looking to benefit from their development with a new round of reforms and opening-up.

"We need to build more satellite towns and key industry zones to attract major companies planning to move out of Beijing and Tianjin," said Zhou Benshun, Party chief of the province, at a meeting of the provincial Party committee on Wednesday in Shijiazhuang.

The meeting outlined the guidelines for the future development of the province.

The province aims to take advantage of the two municipalities' development by providing a good investment environment and building at least one zone in every city in the province to attract companies looking or forced to move. Cities neighboring the nation's capital will try to take advantage of their location to develop tourism, ecological agriculture and other services.

Hebei attracted more than 219 billion yuan (US$35.65 billion) from Beijing, which accounted for 43 percent of its total external investment last year.

The building of a new airport in Langfang will boost the city's cooperation with Beijing, and it is expected to be a new engine for the province's growth.

Hebei is trying to consolidate its status as a major economy in China through industrial upgrading and innovation.

"We need to free our minds and think outside the box, and get stronger motivation from continuing reform and opening-up," Zhou said.

In the past there were complaints that Hebei found it hard to compete with Beijing and Tianjin.

"But this is no longer the case," said Zhou.

It now wants to take advantage of its location between Beijing and Tianjin to adsorb their spillover and attract companies that are moving out.