Tianjin GDP growth up in first three quarters

China's northern port city of Tianjin saw year-on-year gross domestic product growth of 4.6 percent during the first three quarters of the year, sustaining a momentum to reverse the recent downward glide of its GDP.

The city's GDP saw a stunning drop in growth to 3.6 percent in late 2017 from 9 percent expansion in 2016.

The GDP figure has since seen a slow climb from the second quarter of last year and touched 1.5 trillion yuan ($212.3 billion) during the third quarter of 2019.

Chu Liping, deputy head of the Tianjin Municipal Statistics Bureau, indicated that the city's fundamentals in its economy have been cemented and "the GDP's upward trend is poised to continue."

She attributed the growth to the city's efforts to upgrade its industrial structure, turn it into an area of intelligent manufacturing, and to attract companies from Beijing to decongest the Chinese capital's industrial capacity.

Statistics showed that during the first three quarters of the year, investment of up to 10 billion yuan from Beijing companies has been injected into Tianjin, accounting for 46.4 percent of the city's total newly arrived domestic investment.

The city's industrial restructuring and its favorable policies to boost the business environment bolstered the confidence of foreign companies.

The number of newly approved foreign companies hit 521 during the period, with the contractual value of their investment hitting $19.3 billion. The actual utilized foreign capital surged by 4.4 percent to $3.7 billion.

Foreign companies are upbeat the city's favorable policies will optimize the business environment and industrial transformation of the city.

Eugene Kaspersky, CEO of Russia-based cyberspace security solution provider Kaspersky, said the company is eyeing opportunities to expand its presence in Tianjin thanks to the city's "strong hightech development competence" that drives the need for cybersecurity solutions.

"Tianjin authorities have given us strong support and the city's role as a neighborhood to Beijing has greater advantages to facilitate our business connections between the Beijing offices and the manufacturing centers in Tianjin," said Airbus Helicopters China managing director Marie-Agnes Veve.

Stephan Wollenstein, CEO of Volkswagen Group China, added that "Tianjin plays a key role in Volkswagen's development path in China, and we have reaped great benefits in the city. We are fully confident in the city's development capacity and business environment."

Tianjin Municipal Development and Reform Commission vice-director Wei Guangyong said the city is now mapping out the 14th Fiveyear Development Plan (2021-25) and vying for more foreign companies to contribute their proposals to boost Tianjin's artificial intelligent sector, de-cluster Beijing's non-core functions and optimize the local business climate.

Early last week, Tianjin announced it would seek the public's opinion on several proposals to attract more Beijing companies to transfer to the city.

The proposals include the lowered threshold to buy Tianjin properties for those people working in the Binhai and Baodi branches of Beijing's Zhongguancun high-tech parks in Tianjin, which inspired the public's recognition of the city's efforts to boost its industrial growth.