Emerging sectors boost capital's GDP

Beijing plans to speed up process of building itself into a 'national scientific and technological innovation center', the city's mayor says

Emerging industries such as auto manufacturing and pharmaceuticals carried the capital's gross domestic product growth in the first half of the year, amid weak performance from the real estate sector.

The city's GDP was 1.14 trillion yuan ($172 billion 154 billion euros) in the first six months, up 6.7 percent year-on-year - on par with the national average, according to the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Statistics.

However, total investment in the real estate sector was 167 billion yuan, which is 7.6 percent lower than the same period last year.

Xia Qinfang, deputy director of the bureau, says the real estate sector had hit Beijing's GDP growth in the first half of 2016.

"Real estate developers are cautious about the market," she says. "The land supply is reduced, which leads to declining investment in the sector."

Beijing's financial sector was also weak during the first half, with year-on-year growth of 13 percent in the first quarter declining to 9.2 percent for the first six months.

Xia said the stock market, which makes up a big part of the city's financial sector, had been particularly weak - although it was supported by internet finance.

Elsewhere, the city's auto sector reached an output value of 217.5 billion yuan for the first half, up 11.6 percent year-on-year, according to the bureau.

Production of new energy vehicles more than doubled during the first half, due to Beijing's favorable policies, says Jia Xinguang, an analyst with China Automotive Industry Consulting and Development Co.

The capital's pharmaceuticals industry, meanwhile, had a total output value of 37.9 billion yuan, up 7.2 percent year-on-year.

By the end of last year, Beijing's pharmaceutical industry had hit overall revenue of 130 billion yuan, and the biopharmaceutical industry has been included in the local government's technology innovation action plan.

In the second half of this year, the capital will continue its deepening of supply-side structural reform, the city's mayor, Wang Anshun, said during a governmental conference held in mid-July.

He said the focus will be on emerging industries and the acceleration of high-end industrial development.

"Technological innovation forms the core of our city's new development drive. Thus, Beijing will speed up the process of building itself into a national scientific and technological innovation center," he said.

Wang also said that the city needed to activate the power of social creativity in its service sector, with the aim of expanding the reform and opening-up of these types of businesses.

dujuan@chinadaily.com.cn