Cross-region cooperation helps companies expand and prosper

On a raw egg, the words “10th Anniversary of Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei Coordinated Development” gradually emerge. A five-axis computer numerical control machine developed by Beijing Jingdiao Group, using a spindle speed of 18,000 revolutions per minute, carves the words onto the shell at a depth of 0.3 to 0.4 millimeters.

“The vigorous development of Jingdiao is inseparable from the implementation of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei coordinated development strategy,” said Yang Meng, a staff member of the company, which is a national high-tech business focused on the research and development, production, sales and engineering services of precision CNC machine tools.

Around 2010, the market of computers, communications and consumer electronics was booming, and the demand for high-end machine tools was high.

As a result, Jingdiao faced tight industrial land resources in Beijing. “Then we had to cope with the challenge of conducting numerous tests on product quality for research and development while meeting regular production tasks in the same workshop. That fell short of the product demand,” Yang said.

With the coordinated development of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region elevated to a national initiative in 2014, Jingdiao has set eyes beyond Beijing, relocating its production and assembly center to Langfang, Hebei province.

Covering a construction area of 220,000 square meters, the Langfang facility is capable of producing around 6,000 to 8,000 mediumsized precision carving machines annually.

This year, the company’s Tianjin base is scheduled to start operation, focusing on the research and production of key core components for machine tools.

The past decade saw Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei working to eliminate institutional and systemic barriers, forming a development pattern characterized by shared goals, integrated measures, complementary advantages and mutual benefits.

Industrial relocations and increasingly close collaborations, including the Jingdiao model of “research and development in Beijing, production in Tianjin and Hebei”, have accelerated their formation.

Beijing Infrastructure Investment — a company specializing in the financing, construction and operation of infrastructure projects, especially those involving rail transport — and its affiliate Beijing Rail Transit Technology Equipment Group, have set up an intelligent manufacturing base in Baoding, Hebei province, which achieved mass production in 2021.

The Baoding base has rolled out more than 700 vehicles across 17 types, serving the western section of Beijing Metro Line 11, which is also known as the Winter Olympic branch line, among other urban rail projects.

In addition, BII has established a technology research institute in Beijing, focusing on the high-end rail transit equipment R&D, leveraging the innovation advantages of the capital city and driving the development of the high-end equipment manufacturing industry in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region.

“Industrial synergy development is a substantive part and key support of the coordinated development of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region,” said Ye Tanglin, executive vice-president of an Academy of Metropolis Economic and Social Development at Capital University of Economics and Business.

As one of the most dynamic and innovative regions in the Chinese economy, the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region has conditions favorable to industrial synergy development.

Beijing is rich in educational and human resources, with active scientific and technological innovation; Tianjin has abundant industrial space, proximity to ports and convenient transportation; Hebei has a strong manufacturing base, abundant natural resources and an ample labor supply, Yang said.

Since the implementation of the national initiative of coordinated regional development, breakthroughs have been achieved in the three major areas of transportation, ecology and industry, he said.

According to Liu Bozheng, executive deputy director of the joint working office for Beijing-TianjinHebei coordinated development, the three areas have focused their efforts on cooperation across industry chains, covering six sectors including biopharmaceuticals.

Businesses from Beijing have made 49,000 investments in Tianjin and Hebei, pouring in a total of 2.3 trillion yuan ($319.5 billion). Companies from Zhongguancun, a high-tech business hub in Beijing, have also branched out into the two neighboring areas, setting up more than 10,000 branches, Liu said.

Data from the Beijing Commission of Development and Reform show that the industrial added value of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region reached 2.43 trillion yuan in 2023, 1.43 times that of 2013.