More factories moved out of downtown Beijing

Beijing authorities have moved 399 manufacturing enterprises out of the city's downtown area since January to further transfer noncapital functions and improve urban management, the city's economic planning body said.

By November, Beijing had relocated 3,047 factories to neighboring areas since 2017, renovated 630 local markets and closed 122 logistics centers, the Beijing Municipal Commission of Development and Reform said in a document released on Sunday.

"The spatial layout of the capital's public services was frequently adjusted and optimized in 2019 to ensure the city's living environment was improved," said Zhou Hao, director of the commission's coordination and general office.

For example, construction of five new college campuses, including a new campus for the Beijing Film Academy, had speeded up and the reconstruction of several hospitals, including the east branch of Chaoyang Hospital, had also started, Zhou said.

"The overall effect of urban management improvement in downtown Beijing is obvious," he added.

For more balanced and sustainable development, Beijing's urban planning authorities also speeded up the process of drawing up regional plans to maintain an appropriate population density and reasonable development scale.

According to the Beijing Overall Urban Development Plan, approved by the State Council in September 2017, the capital will cap its permanent resident population in the downtown area at 10.85 million next year.

But hitting that target had been accompanied by challenges, Yang Zhongyuan, vice-chairman of the urban construction and environmental protection committee of the Beijing Municipal People's Congress, said in a report delivered on Thursday to the Standing Committee of the Beijing Municipal People's Congress.

The decreases in noncapital functions and industries and the population in the downtown area were proceeding more slowly than expected, he said.

Zhang Wei, director of the Beijing Municipal Commission of Planning and Natural Resources, said, "It is important to explore new methods to further move out Beijing's noncapital functions."

He suggested the city preserve space for sustainable development, similar to the three ecological belts along mountains and rivers to be built between the capital's downtown area and Beijing Capital International Airport, for the region's future industrial development.

He also urged district-level urban planning authorities to introduce new methods in city management to achieve more coordinated and sustainable development.

On Dec 11, Beijing's 14 districts each issued a district plan, setting limits on populations and land for development, and standards for ecological protection.

The district plan for downtown Dongcheng and Xicheng was unveiled on Monday, with public opinion being sought. A detailed urban plan for the capital's Tongzhou district subcenter will be published soon, according to the city's planning and natural resources commission.