Hebei Province and Beijing to Establish “Capital Area Special Economic Zone”

The Hebei government held a meeting to solicit opinions from experts and officials, including officials from the Beijing Municipal Planning Committee, on drafting the “Capital Area Special Economic Zone” project yesterday.

“We plan to establish a special economic zone in the area within 1,000 kilometers from Beijing,” Zhao Yong, executive deputy governor of Hebei Province said. He went on to say that the plenary session of the Hebei CPC Provincial Committee held last week had already set the “development of the economic area around Beijing” as the top priority of the province.

Hebei’s determination has aroused a positive response from the Beijing government.

Wang Fei, deputy director of the Beijing Municipal Planning Committee said at the meeting, ”Beijing will not desert its surrounding areas. It will promote the complete development of the whole region.”

According to Zhao Yong this “Capital Area Special Economic Zone” contains three new cities, Jingdong, Jingnan and Jingbei, and seven medium-sized cities, each of which has a population of over 300,000.

“This new development zone will be covered by preferential policies which are even better than of those of the Shenzhen Special Economic Zone,” Zhao Yong said.

It is predicted that this project will finish being drafted by January.

According to media reports, the light railway connecting Beijing and Yanjiao, a district of Sanhe City, a county-level city under Hebei’s Langfang City, will begin operations next year. And Beijing’ area code “010” will become used by Hebei locals by the end of this year.

The Hebei government has also formed a deputy-governor (mayor) level negotiation mechanism with its Beijing counterpart. They will meet once a quarter to discuss problems concerning the development of both areas.

This article was edited by Rose Scobie

Source
The Beijing News 北京河北打造环首都特区承接首都“溢出”效应

Image