Tianjin flexing muscles to reach far
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2005-06-26 08:44

North China's Tianjin Municipality has started to draw worldwide attention with a clearly stated ambition to become the country's another locomotive for economic growth.

As finance ministers from Asia and Europe converged to Tianjinto attend the Sixth ASEM-FMM (Asia-Europe Finance Ministers Meeting), which is due to unveil on Sunday, the north China portcity seems more or less ready for a bigger role to play in thecentral stage in international economic and financial circle.

The municipality, located 130 km southeast of the nationalcapital Beijing, first opened its door to the outside world 150years ago when it was designated by the then imperial courtgovernment of the Qing Dynasty as a port open to foreign traders.The international exposure gradually transformed Tianjin into anational financial and business hub running side by side with east China's Shanghai.

The experience of opening itself to the outside world greatlyfamiliarized Tianjin with external novelties as well as sharpenedits economic edges," said folklorist Zhang Zhong who specializesin the history of Tianjin.

The city was known for homing China's first newspaper DagongDaily, first modern higher education institution BeiyangUniversity and the first Western-style Qishilin restaurant.

While the memories of the city's past glory were stilllingering on, Tianjin assumed real importance in the nationaleconomy in the early 1980s after China adopted the policy ofreform and open itself to the outside world.

As one of the earliest Chinese coastal cities opened on trialbasis to foreign investment, Tianjin soon became the city thatallured and utilized the largest amount of foreign capital innorth China.

According to latest statistics from the Tianjin MunicipalCommerce Commission, 106 out of the Global 500 enterprises,including big names such as IBM and Motorola, have establishedoperations in Tianjin. By the end of May 2005, the city hadaccommodated a total of 16,000 foreign-funded businesses with theutilized foreign capital amounting to 28.3 billion US dollars.

Last year, foreign-funded firms contributed to 79.5 and 74percent of Tianjin's GDP (Gross Domestic Product) and exportsrespectively.

In addition, Tianjin port has become one of the world's 10largest ports and now connects to some 300 ports in 170 countriesand regions across the globe. In 2004, the port handled 220million tons of cargoes and 3.8 million containers.

Tianjin Mayor Dai Xianglong, former president of China'scentral bank, regarded the port as the city's "biggest strength"in its march toward becoming an international distribution center.

"We will try our best to further develop the port," said Dai,whose government has decided to invest 40 billion yuan (4.84billion US dollars) to expand the port area from the current 30 to 100 sq km by 2010.

Meanwhile, the city also endeavors to turn its coastal Binhaiarea into an economic powerhouse similar to Shanghai's Pudong Area, a widely recognized miracle of development featuring amazingeconomic feat scored in a short period of time.

Binhai New Area, where the ASEM-FMM is to convene specifically, covers 2,270 sq km of land and 153-km shoreline. It centers in the northeast Asia and is immediately adjacent to Japan and theRepublic of Korea (ROK) across the sea.

In fact, an ambitious plan to develop the Binhai New Area hasbeen submitted to the State Council for approval and it is verylikely to be incorporated into the 11th "five-year plan",commented a local economic observer.

"As Tianjin continues to quicken its pace to become aninternationally recognized metropolis, the municipality willprovide abundant opportunities to foreign investors and try itsbest to live up to their expectations on Tianjin, a city with ahistory of more than 600 years," said Mayor Dai with confidenceduring an interview on Friday.