New zone seen as a role model for growth

International experts and media reports say China's new economic zone will help relieve the burdens of Beijing as a metropolis, promote regional coordinated development and create a new growth pole for China, setting an example for developing economies.

China announced on Saturday that it would establish the Xiongan New Area in North China's Hebei province, as part of measures to advance the coordinated development of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region.

Bambang Suryono, an Indonesian scholar and president of the Jakarta-based Nanyang ASEAN Foundation, said Beijing, a megalopolis with a history as capital of more than 800 years, is facing such "urban ills" as traffic jams that plague big cities.

Setting up the Xiongan New Area to build a creative and livable city will help ease Beijing's urban burdens, Suryono said.

The establishment of the Xiongan New Area is "the latest step in China's efforts to cure severe 'urban ills', such as traffic congestion and air pollution in Beijing by curbing the capital's population growth and moving certain nonessential facilities, including manufacturing and logistics, to nearby regions," says a report from Press Trust of India.

Authorities intend to transform the region into a new growth pole, it said.

Ronnie Lins, CEO of Center China Brazil: Research & Business, said that avoiding over-development of mega cities is a common issue facing all developing countries.

The Chinese government is exploring new development models for big cities, diversifying their functions and easing their burdens, which will solve environmental issues, promote development of surrounding areas and provide references for other developing countries, Lins said.

Zhu Zhiqun, a political science professor at Bucknell University in Pennsylvania in the United States, said the establishment of the Xiongan New Area is an important measure that will greatly influence China's future development.

Zhu also said he believed Xiongan will make the integrated development of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region come true and promote the rapid and comprehensive development of North China.

China's current development should focus on quality, Zhu said, adding that Xiongan aims to see green, creative, high-quality and high-end development, which will become a role model for other regions in the country.

Huang Bin, a researcher at Thailand's Kasikorn Research Center, said setting up the Xiongan New Area is an important and strategic plan of the Chinese leadership.

The new economic zone and Beijing and the port city of Tianjin, with their diversified and complementary functions, form a "triangle" that will open a new space for the development of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region and North China and will explore a completely new model for China's urban development, Huang said.

The Xiongan New Area, along with other new economic areas, special economic zones and free trade zones in China, "will greatly contribute to the balanced development of the economy", South Korea's Asia Today said in a report on its website.

The report said the zone will also create "the necessary power" to promote the China-led Belt and Road Initiative, which aims to build a trade and infrastructure network connecting Asia with Europe and Africa along the ancient Silk Road routes.

Suryono, the Indonesian scholar, said establishing the Xiongan New Area forms an important part of China's strategy to further its reform and deal with the problems that have emerged during the rapid development of the nation's economy.

Xinhua

Real estate heats up along perimeter of new economic zone

Although local governments including Xiongxian and Rongcheng counties in Hebei province have frozen all real estate sales after the central government announced the establishment of the Xiongan New Area on Sunday, property prices in some perimeter zones have surged while transactions in other perimeter areas have been halted.

Despite the fact that Wenan county is 30 kilometers away from Xiongxian county, and it hasn't been involved in any developing plans regarding the new economic zone area, housing prices in Wenan jumped from 4,700 yuan per square meter on Sunday to 5,500 yuan per sq m on Monday.

Xu Yan, a property sales representative in Wenan, said the news has not only boosted the housing prices, but also increased real estate developers' confidence.

"As many speculators cannot purchase in three counties that form the new area, they have rushed to surrounding areas to buy properties," said Xu.

Many property projects in Bazhou, another place close to the Xiongan New Area, offered prices between 17,000 and 20,000 per sq m, and many demanded that buyers make full payment.

He Jingtong, a business professor at Nankai University in Tianjin, said the government has made specific plans for infrastructure, commercial and transportation projects in the new area, but it is too early to speculate on activities in surrounding areas.

The new area's establishment also had an impact on the stock market on Monday, with the share price of Beijing-based cement manufacturer BBMG Group Co surging by 23.84 percent in the Hong Kong Stock Exchange during the opening quotation.

The trading price of Shijiazhuang-based China Suntien Green Energy Co, a new energy product supplier, grew by 23.33 percent during the peak time in the Hong Kong stock market on Monday.

Zhong Nan