[photopress:zones_tianjin.jpg,full,alignright]The Tianjin Economic and Technological Development Area (TEDA) was established in December 1984 and was one of the first national-level development areas. Twelve years later, national strategy established the Tianjin Binhai New Area as a pilot area for implementing deepening reform.
In 2007, the Binhai New Area had a total output value of RMB236.4 billion, accounting for 47.1% of the total in Tianjin. It attracts investment from home and abroad.
Tianjin held a conference in March this year to discuss ’emancipating the mind’ and requesting municipal officials to lead the way in developing Tianjin into a first-class developed city.
[photopress:zone_tianjing2_1.JPG,full,alignleft]TEDA has ranked at the top for 10 consecutive years on a list from the Ministry of Commerce for its ‘comprehensive investment environment in China’s State-level economic and technological development zones’.
The Tianjin plan to establish a new economic outlook will include accelerating industrial improvements, enhancing innovation in science and technology, greater development of modern service industries, promoting development of the domestic economy, upgrading the overall service of the city.
In the past 20 years, the area has attracted globally known multinationals that have invested in modern manufacturing facilities, including Motorola from the US, Toyota from Japan and Samsung from South Korea.
In 2007, the total output value of the telecommunications, manufacturing and automotive industries exceeded RMB260 billion, accounting for 80% of the total.
In more recent years, modern service industries have moved into the area – foreign banks, investment companies, and software outsourcing enterprises.
Backing up these hopes and plans is the fact that Tianjin Port is the largest port in north China and handled 30 million tons of cargo in 2007, up 20.2% year-on-year.
In the same year the turnover of the 20-foot equivalent units (TEUs) of container increased by 19.4% to 7.103 million.
The port’s target is 330 million tons of freight traffic and 8.5 million (TEUs) of containers in 2008.
Sources: China Daily and China Daily