One of the bar streets in Tianjin offers locals and foreigners a place to relax. [Photo provided to China Daily]

The mayor said Tianjin should also cut bureaucracy, rein in government spending, improve regulations, optimize services, facilitate investment and trade and help improve residents' quality of life. He said government measures include streamlining administration with an "approval with one seal" practice and setting up a Binhai New Area administrative approval bureau, so that businesses could rapidly complete their registration and approval procedures.

"These are new measures closely related to Tianjin's supply-side structural reform," said Zhou Liqun, head of the Nankai University's Binhai Development Research Institute. "Streamlining government administration isn't enough. We also need to stimulate reform through opening-up."

Zhou cited the newly established Tianjin Pilot Free Trade Zone as an example of how to advance reform through opening-up.

"The free trade zone allows local companies to further go global while attracting businesses from all over the world, which requires the government to improve its administration and services according to international norms and standards," he said.

The Tianjin mayor said mass innovation and entrepreneurship are effective ways to promote supplyside structural reform.

Huang said Tianjin has a relatively good environment for people to start their own businesses and innovate.