Hebei's vision is building a strong high-tech future

Innovation is the major engine propelling Hebei’s development and the main impetus behind the new momentum of the province. 

Strategic emerging industries are growing rapidly and high-tech industries are booming while the transformation and upgrading of traditional industries are being accelerated. 

“Made in Hebei” is appearing on stages at home and abroad together with debuts by new Hebei enterprises.

Governor Xu Qin set out the blueprint for 2019 in his government work report: accelerate innovation-driven development, promote scientific and technological innovation integrated with economic and social development, and strengthen strategic support for the economy.

Hebei will improve the distribution of scientific and technological innovation, cultivate more players and platforms, and intensify collaborative and regional innovation and mass entrepreneurship.

Regional coordination

With a major role in the coordinated development of Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei, the province has become the location for the transformation of scientific research from Beijing and Tianjin, and the manufacturing base of design by Beijing and Tianjin.

The effect is becoming obvious. Progress has been made in three key sectors — transportation, industry and environmental protection. 

The average concentration of PM2.5 across the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region has decreased by about 40 percent from 2013 levels.

More than 1,400 enterprises from Beijing and Tianjin have moved to Hebei. In 2018, the Shibaolang Comprehensive Innovation and Reform Experimental Area carried out 28 institutional reforms while firms, such as Alibaba and Hikvision established regional headquarters in Baoding.

Hebei has teamed up with Beijing and Tianjin to build more than 210 science and technology parks, innovation bases, technology markets and innovation alliances. Turnover in technology in Beijing and Tianjin reached nearly 20 billion yuan (US$2.9 billion) last year, an increase of more than 25 percent.

By 2020, the total technology transactions are expected to be more than 50 billion yuan. In the fields of next-generation IT, integrated circuits, health, energy-saving and environmental protection, intelligent equipment, new-energy intelligent vehicles, new materials, artificial intelligence and modern agriculture, Hebei will support the transformation of 1,000 advanced scientific and technological achievements in Beijing and Tianjin.

By 2020, major breakthroughs will have been made in the Shijiazhuang-Baoding-Langfang Comprehensive Innovation and Reform Experimental Area, Hebei Jingnan National Science and Technology Achievement Transformation Demonstration Area, Modern Agricultural Science and Technology Demonstration Zone around Beijing and Zhangjiakou.

The total mileage of expressways and railways in Hebei ranks first in the country. High-speed railways between Beijing and Zhangjiakou and between Beijing and Shenyang are under construction. 

The Beijing-Taizhou and Beijing-Kunming expressways have been operational. 

Chengde Puning and Cangzhou Zhongjie airports have started operation.

Emerging industries

Strategic emerging industries will lead economic and social development. Hebei is carrying forward a three-year strategy (2018-2020) to make full use of global innovative resources and will focus on the development of Big Data and the Internet of Things, IT manufacturing, AI-featured and intelligent equipment, biomedicine, high-end equipment manufacturing, new-energy and smart grids, new-energy vehicles and intelligent networks, new materials and advanced environmental protection.

By 2020, revenue in these sectors is set to exceed 1.7 trillion yuan, which will drive the added value of strategic emerging industries to 500 billion yuan, accounting for more than 12 percent of Hebei’s GDP.

Hebei will also take action to make breakthroughs in AI, next-generation communications technology, cutting-edge materials and health to become more competitive.

Agglomeration forms a new pattern of development. Hebei will build 30 industrial demonstration bases, cultivate a number of industrial clusters with a scale of more than 100 billion yuan each, and jointly form a new international strategic emerging industry development center with complementary functions, resource-sharing and industrial connection with Beijing and Tianjin.

Major cities in Hebei have their own tasks. 

By 2020, strategic emerging industries will play a leading role in Shijiazhuang’s economy. The biomedicine industry and the new generation of the information technology industry will be the two pillars while the development of an advanced equipment manufacturing industry will be accelerated. The added value of strategic emerging industries in Shijiazhuang will reach 50 billion yuan by then.

During the same period, revenue from Xingtai’s emerging industries, mainly in the seven key sectors, will exceed 100 billion yuan, which will bring the added value of strategic emerging industries to 24.5 billion yuan, accounting for about 10 percent of GDP.

Langfang will cultivate and expand industrial clusters such as Big Data, next-generation display technology, intelligent manufacturing, new materials, aerospace, e-commerce and digital creativity. The added value of strategic emerging industries will account for 15 percent of the city’s GDP.

Dingzhou will develop high-end equipment manufacturing, new energy, energy-saving and environmental protection, Big Data and Internet of Things, artificial intelligence and intelligent equipment.

By 2020, the added value of strategic emerging industries in Hengshui will reach 16 billion yuan, accounting for more than 8.5 percent of GDP. Hengshui will build an industrial system featuring equipment manufacturing, food, medicine, functional materials, textile, home decor, business and trade logistics, culture, tourism and modern agriculture.

Industrial upgrade

By eliminating outdated production capacity, fostering new growth areas and improving industrial quality and efficiency, Hebei has made every effort to accelerate its transformation.

Major progress has been made in the withdrawal of iron and steel enterprises from cities around Beijing. Baoding’s iron and steel production capacity has been completely withdrawn. Three of the four iron and steel enterprises in Langfang have been closed while capacity in Qinhuangdao and Chengde has been greatly reduced.

At the same time, a number of high-end manufacturing projects such as Beijing Hyundai Cangzhou and Lynk & Co Zhangjiakou have new factories in operation.

Preliminary work on Caofeidian’s 10-million-ton oil refining project is going well.

Province-wide, 12.3 million tons of steel capacity, 10.9 million tons of iron capacity, 14 million tons of coal production capacity have been cut.

In 2018, the added value of industrial strategic emerging industries grew by 10 percent, of which the pharmaceuticals grew 13.2 percent and the integrated circuit manufacturing industry 28.6 percent.

During the same period, the added value of the high-tech industry increased by 15.3 percent, of which new-energy vehicles increased 1.8 times and LCD screens by 30.7 percent.

Carrying out technological transformation, developing industrial design, enhancing industrial innovation capability, and fostering and strengthening strategic emerging industries are Hebei’s recipe. 

This year, the province will have 1,000 more large-scale industrial enterprises. Strategic emerging industries will keep growing, with revenue exceeding 1.5 trillion yuan.

The added value of high-tech industries will increase more than 12 percent and the fixed assets of high-tech industries will grow more than 10 percent.

The elimination of outdated capacity continues, with more than 5,000 industrial enterprises transforming, and investment in transformation to rise over 6 percent.

Preferential policies

Hebei also provides policy support to science and technology innovation. 

The provincial authority issued its “Opinion on Deepening Scientific and Technological Reform and Innovation and Promoting High-Quality Development” in January to boost the development of cutting-edge and gap-filling technologies, set up Hebei Industrial Technology Research Institute, and build an international scientific and technological achievements exhibition and trading center.

The document gives team leaders of sci-tech projects greater power in decision-making, provides more support to technicians, and enhances inclusive policies for innovative businesses.

A year ago, Hebei published its three-year (2018-2020) action plan for scientific and technological innovation, focusing on the promotion of scientific and technological innovation, cultivation of innovative enterprises, promotion of coordinated Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei innovation, the support for innovative talent, institutional reforms, and the optimization of the environment for innovation and entrepreneurship.

And a seven-year plan for science and technology innovation at the county level is Hebei’s latest answer to unbalanced development at the grassroots and to building more innovative cities and towns.

High-tech zones

Under the 13th Five-Year (2016-2020) Plan, Shijiazhuang, Baoding, Tangshan, Yanjiao and Chengde high-tech zones have become pillars for scientific and technological innovation and economic and social development, playing leading roles in the implementation of the innovation-driven development strategy.

The five zones are home to 4,000 small and medium-sized enterprises and 730 technology companies.

By the end of next year, Hebei will have built five innovation centers, 20 demonstration zones and 100 platforms, accomplished the transformation of 1,000 major research achievements, of which 10 percent will be from Beijing and Tianjin.

Additionally, Hebei has more than 150 incubators which have cultivated more than 2,500 enterprises, including 83 listed companies. 

Around 400 centers for entrepreneurship and innovation take care of 12,000 startups.

Hebei is expected to have 1,800 more technology companies and 10,000 more small and medium-sized enterprises this year in line with the government work report, and the total number of innovation platforms above the provincial level will exceed 1,670.

The province will also have 110 new incubators and centers for entrepreneurship and innovation above the provincial level during the year.