Aerial photo taken on March 31, 2017 shows Baiyangdian, North China's largest freshwater wetland, in Anxin county, North China's Hebei province. [Photo/Xinhua]

Apt test case for new normal

Apart from accommodating “non-capital functions” of Beijing, Xiongan New Area can also explore a sustainable development path that strikes a balance between maintaining economic growth and curbing property prices, as well as protecting the environment — which, in other words, is the new normal of moderate but sustainable and eco-friendly economic growth.

Besides, it is not proper to compare Xiongan New Area with Shenzhen Special Economic Zone, established in the 1980s, or the Shanghai Pudong New Area, set up in the 1990s, in terms of just potential economic output. Xiongan New Area has a wider range of goals which include studies to find ways to cure the “urban ills”, transform the economic structure and implement a new pattern of urbanization. Since the yet-to-materialize new area will eventually cover 2,000 square kilometers — from 100 sq m in the initial period — it will be large enough to explore ways of solving the problems faced by cities and optimizing development in densely populated areas.

Strengthening public resources and building infrastructure facilities that support the development and growth of cities will be given priority to improve communication between the new area and the cities around it. Jingjinji Intercity Railway Investment Corporation, co-financed by the governments of Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei province and China Railway Corporation, has already been officially launched. So it’s possible that work on the intercity railways would start soon.

And once hospitals, branches of universities and scientific research institutions are established in, and State-owned enterprises move into the area, they will attract a resourceful and efficient talent pool, as well as more workers to Xiongan.

Nie Huihua, vice-president of the National Academy of Development and Strategy, Renmin University of China