Amid the effort to relocate non-capital functions, Beijing will remove or relocate 1,000 more general manufacturing enterprises, as well as 300 additional marketplaces and logistic centers by 2020, according to a press conference on Beijing's "two sessions," the annual municipal parliamentary meetings.
From 2018 to 2020, the coordinated development of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region will enter its intermediate stage, when general manufacturing, regional markets, schools, and hospitals will be relocated, said Liu Bozheng, one of Beijing's municipal officials in charge of its coordinated development.
The preliminary goals for 2018, as part of the overall effort to relocate non-capital functions, are to remove, relocate, or upgrade 500 general manufacturing enterprises, 176 marketplaces and logistic centers, as well as a number of schools and hospitals.
This year's draft budget submitted for review at the local policymaking meetings says that Beijing's estimated budget in the relocation work for 2018 is 12.2 billion yuan (US$1.91 billion), which is 340 million yuan more than the budget for 2017.
In addition, Beijing will revise the list of restricted and prohibited new industries in order to facilitate high quality development.
In the past three years, the city has completed 990 basic tasks concerning the coordination development of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, which contributed to the transformation from a development method of gathering resources to the method of optimizing the capital's functions. The city has made breakthroughs in transportation, environmental protection and industries.
Liu said that although relocating non-capital functions from Beijing has proved effective in remedying its "big city malaise" (overpopulation, traffic congestion, skyrocketing housing prices and other problems frequently occurring in major cities), a full recovery is still far from the sight.
The construction of Beijing's subsidiary administrative center and the Xiongan New Area in Hebei Province will help to bring the relocation work into full swing this year, and the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region will further integrate in terms of standard, admittance and market to facilitate coordinated development, Liu said.