Beijing builds on success as it lays out future goals

Beijing’s annual gross domestic product will increase to 5 trillion yuan ($750 billion) in the next five years with a stronger substantial economy represented by high-tech industries, Beijing’s Party secretary Cai Qi said while delivering a report at the opening ceremony of the ongoing 13th Communist Party of China Beijing Congress on Monday.

Beijing will improve its high-tech industrial structure, focusing on high-end, intelligent and green sectors, as well as accelerating advanced manufacturing industries such as integrated circuits, healthcare and hydrogen energy, he said.

The capital will cultivate several globally competitive industrial clusters in the following five years.

In 2021, Beijing’s GDP exceeded 4 trillion yuan for the first time, a year-on-year increase of 8.5 percent, according to the city government.

Beijing has also achieved growth in other areas.

It has become China’s first megacity with a different approach to sustainable development, having managed to pursue growth while consuming fewer resources over the past five years.

The permanent resident population in six major urban districts in Beijing has declined by 15 percent compared with 2014. Meanwhile, the city has strictly controlled construction land in urban and rural areas by cutting 110 square kilometers of such land in the past five years.

Residents in the capital have breathed cleaner air and lived in a greener environment over the past five years. The annual average concentration of major airborne fine particulate matter, or PM2.5, has fallen to 33 micrograms per cubic meter, decreasing by 43.1 percent compared to the level in 2017.

The government has increased the number of wetlands in suburban areas and “pocket forests” in streets and alleys, and will continue with an aim to raise the forest coverage rate to 45 percent in the following years from the current 44.6 percent, according to the report.

In addition to a growing economy and better environment, the capital has been working on building itself into the nation’s center of international communication and a technology innovation hub.

In the next five years, Beijing will improve its role as the nation’s international communication center by strengthening related facilities and capabilities. The city will build its fourth embassy area and draft the construction of new zones for international organizations in the next five years, said the report.

“Beijing will meanwhile accelerate to form an international science and technology innovation center to better serve the country’s national strategy,” Cai said. “Three national-level science labs will be built.

“Over the next five years, Beijing will build itself into a socialist, modern international city with stronger competitiveness. People’s living quality and environment will be improved comprehensively,” he said. “All people in Beijing will make new steps together toward a brighter future of common prosperity.”