Chapter III Promoting City by Opening up
(Translator:Guo Fangfang, Proofreader: Xu Yingrui)
Building a First-class International Tourist City
Opening up is the foundation of prosperity and the source of vitality. It is the essential way for Qinhuangdao to achieve good and rapid development. This year marks the 40th anniversary of the reform and opening up and also the 120th anniversary of the trade opening of Qinhuangdao Port. To build it a strong, beautiful and international port city, we should integrate openness as a city spirit into the genes for the growth and development of Qinhuangdao. We should expand opening up as a key focus for accelerating economic and social development, actively integrate Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei coordinated development and the “One Belt and One Road” construction . Through opening-up we shall promote reform, development and innovation, carry out a new round of opening-up at a high-level and develop it profoundly, so as to build a first-class international tourist city, and continuously improve its international level.
Deepening all-round reform
We summed up our measures introduced by various departments in every county and district in the last few years, in order to check and fulfill the main responsibilities for the reforms at each level. We seek to implement the reform deployment from the superiors to the letter, and improve the ability to carry out reforms accurately. The 19th municipal party committee leading group meeting was held to comprehensively deepen the reform, 310 reform tasks were arranged, and breakthroughs were made in key area links. The overall reform has been steady, balanced, orderly, and accelerated. We deepened the reform of the “distribution service” and devolved 228 administrative powers to the county level, greatly reducing the time limit for administrative examination and approval, maximizing the convenience of businesses and the masses. Marine management resources were integrated and the Municipal Ocean and Fisheries Bureau were established. We promoted the integration of culture and tourism, urban construction and housing management with great efficiency. In our province, we took the lead in promoting the reform of comprehensive urban management law enforcement and tourism management system. The separation of ownership, management, and operation rights of state-owned scenic spots were completed. To deepen reforms we have made breakthroughs in some key areas such as state-owned enterprises, medical and health care, and development zone management. Urban and rural garbage removal and sanitation maintenance mechanisms have also been established, and the city's waste management has formed a market-based mechanism.
Integrating into the coordinated development of Beijing-Tianjin - Hebei
We will fully support the planning and construction of the Xiong'an New District,which is an important political task for us, and we should be more proactive in docking, integrating and serving Beijing and Tianjin. We fully promoted the construction of Beidaihe Life and Health Industry Innovation Demonstration Zone and successfully applied for the National Health Tourism Demonstration Base. The construction of six major parts of The International Health Care and Tourism Center has been completed, and the German Panadian Medical Treatment Center became the first Sino-foreign joint venture medical institution in the province. Prudently we relocated non-capital core functions and undertook Beijing-Tianjin industrial transfer. There were 128 cooperation projects with Beijing and Tianjin. A strategic partnership was established with Xicheng District in Beijing. The cooperation with OCT, CNBM, and BGI has progressed smoothly. Beidaihe Cancer Hospital and Qinhuangdao Guangji Hospital are under construction. 11 projects including the Qinhuangdao Intelligent Equipment Research Institute of Tsinghua University and the Qinhuangdao Bohai Sea Biological Industry Research Institute of Beijing University of Chemical Technology have been completed. A centralized mechanism for attracting investment was implemented through innovative mechanisms. A number of supporting projects for the industrial chain were contracted and introduced. The actual use of foreign capital has reached $1.022 billion, an increase of 13%, ranking in the forefront of Hebei Province. The "one-on-one" assistance operation was carried out by some key foreign trade enterprises. The total import and export volume was 33.819 billion yuan, an increase of 16.7%, of which exports were 21.569 billion yuan, an increase of 10.7%.
Creating a National All-For-One Tourism Demonstration Zone
(Translator:Jiang Lan, Proofreader: Xu Yingrui)
Tourism is the basic industry, the key industry and the leading industry in Qinhuangdao. At present, Qinhuangdao is endeavoring to build a new model of tourism for the whole regions, all seasons and the whole industry. Taking the opportunity to host the Second Conference of Hebei Tourism Industrial Development, the city used 3 billion yuan of government infrastructure investment to stimulate 30 billion yuan of social capital, opening the Mountain & Sea tourism landscape corridor and linking along the Great Wall tourism circle, Qinhuangdao Mountain & Sea Health and Wellness Tourism Resort has begun to take shape and cultivated six tourism products including Coastal Vacation, Sea Entertainment, Recreation and Health, Mountain Ecology, Cultural Experience and Wine Recreation. In 2017, the total tourism revenue reached 65.829 billion yuan, up by 32.9 percent, and received 52.5415 million domestic and foreign tourists. Shanhaiguan Scenic Spot restored the quality grade of the 5A scenic spot. In the future, Qinhuangdao will focus on building the first-class international tourism city and creating a national tourism demonstration zone and building a group of middle and high-end tourism projects. On the basis of consolidating and enhancing the traditional tourism industries such as Coastal Vacation Tour, Guancheng Cultural Tour, and Ecological Leisure Tour, it will further open up the Mountain & Sea Tourism Landscape Corridor and promote travelling to “the sea, mountain and village” to extend from the coastal line to the entire city and extend from one season to four seasons and meet the increasingly diverse needs of tourists and attract Chinese and foreign tourists.
Qinhuangdao Economic and Technological Development Zone
Qinhuangdao Economic and Technological Development Zone is one of the first batch of state-level economic and technological development zones approved by the State Council in 1984 with a planned control area of 128 square kilometers. As a modern industrial zone integrating state-level export processing zone, national university science park and national high-tech entrepreneurship service center, it has attracted investors from 35 countries and regions to invest and settled down here. The world’s largest automotive aluminum parts base, China’s second largest automotive glass production base, High-end equipment manufacturing base and the northern largest grain, oil, and food processing base, have been built in the area. It has set up China’s first data industry base, China’s largest energy-saving halogen lamp production base, the largest dry fog dust suppression device production base and the important production base for clean energy equipment, constructing an industry brand that is renowned at home and abroad. Strategic emerging industries such as energy conservation and environmental protection, data industry, new energy, and bioengineering are emerging. In 2017, the region’s gross domestic product (GDP) achieved a year-on-year growth of 8.0 percent. The industry’s main business revenue exceeded 200 billion yuan, 20 percent higher; tax revenue was 4.075 billion yuan, a rise of 1.3 percent; total exports were 2.001 billion US dollars, up by 6.7 percent; actual use of foreign capital was 384 million US dollars, up by 71.4 percent; fixed assets investment was 19.63 billion yuan, a rise of 16.8 percent; total fiscal revenue was 4.43 billion yuan, and the general public budget was 2.056 billion yuan, an increase of 4.8 percent and 10.8 percent respectively. At present, the Qinhuangdao Development Zone is fully implementing the three ventures, opening up a new round of changes in thinking concepts, changes in the industrial system and higher levels of openness. It is committed to creating an important window for opening up in the Circum-Bohai-Sea Region, an important bearing park for the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei Collaborative Development industry transfer, advanced manufacturing base of the Circum-Capital Economic Circle, the Research & Development transformation base of high-tech industries, the base of high value-added service industry as well as a multi-functional and comprehensive industrial zone.
Beidaihe New District
As an important node for the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei Collaborative Development, Beidaihe New District adheres to ecological priorities, high-end guidance. It seizes the major opportunities such as Healthy China construction and Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei Collaborative Development, to vigorously develop the health service industry, healthy manufacturing industry and healthy agriculture. To build “441” industry system and create a large “Healthy Tour” industry group in order to accelerate the formation of five major spatial layout of “northern science and education holiday vacation, central life and health, southern ecological economy, western airport bond and eastern sea sports and leisure”. At present, a group of strategic investors such as CFLD, Beijing SINOBIOWAY, Nanjing 21st Century Investment Group have come one after another; health industry projects such as International Health Center and Life Science Park have been officially put into use and a number of high-end tourism projects such as Fisherisland Hot Spring Resort and Sand Sculpture World have been formally operated; Beidaihe International Cancer Hospital, China Green Plaza Green City, Mediterranean Hotel and other key projects have been accelerating to construct; 19 key industrial projects including Life Science Park Stage 2, Outlets World Brand-name Discount City and Christmas Magic City are under construction. Facing the future, the New District will make every effort to create a “Four-City Strategy” demonstration area, a new growth pole of economic development and an international health tourism holiday destination.