Output in Tianjin zone increases to 805b yuan

Industrial output in the Tianjin Economic-Technological Development Area expanded 13 percent last year to 805 billion yuan ($133 billion), showing resilience amid slowing national economic growth.

Xu Hongxing, chairman of TEDA's administrative commission, provided the figure during a work conference on Monday.

Actual foreign direct investment in the region, a core zone of the State-level Tianjin Binhai New Area, increased 9.8 percent to $5.5 billion. TEDA's actual FDI generally accounts for about 50 percent of that in Binhai.

And, since Binhai's actual FDI usually accounts for almost 10 percent of China's total, the figures for TEDA and Binhai offer clues to national conditions.

In the first three quarters of last year, actual national FDI reached $88.6 billion. The Binhai New Area accounted for $7.89 billion, according to the local government.

Last year, another five of the 500 largest companies in the world registered in the area, while nine increased their investments, Xu said. More than 5,000 foreign enterprises from some 60 countries and regions have registered or invested in TEDA.

However, Xu also highlighted some tough challenges, including increasingly stiff competition among local governments to attract foreign capital.

"TEDA's industrial structure needs to be further improved. High-end manufacturing is still not 'high-end' enough, while the share of the modern service industry is too low. Proprietary technology isn't playing enough of a role," Xu said.

Zhou Liqun, executive vice-dean of the Binhai Development Institute, said that with the global industrial structure undergoing a new round of transformation, the nation's development zones are changing their investment structures.

Zhou said that foreign capital flows into China are being influenced by three "new forces".

First, emerging industries such as bioengineering and alternative energy and materials, which are major industries in developed countries, are now flourishing in Binhai, especially at TEDA.

For example, global wind energy manufacturing giant Vestas Wind Systems A/S, based in Denmark, built its largest manufacturing base at TEDA. Hewlett-Packard Co of the United States put its first cloud computing solutions center into operation in the area.

By 2015, the output of TEDA's emerging industries is forecast to exceed 300 billion yuan.

Second, Zhou said, there's the existence of extended industrial chains. China is no longer the world's biggest factory, but its rapid economic growth has turned it into the world's largest market in need of virtually all products.

Third, R&D centers are springing up among multinational companies settling in TEDA to better tap the country's markets.

TEDA is now home to R&D facilities for PPG Industries Inc from the US (paint and optical products), Novozymes A/S from Denmark (biotechnology), the Samsung group from South Korea and Novo Nordisk.