In the first half of 2019, the regional GDP of the northern port city of Tianjin surpassed 1 trillion yuan, reporting a year-on-year improvement of 4.6%. This is a remarkable achievement compared with the city's performance in the previous two years.

In 2017, Tianjin ranked last in terms of growth rate among all provincial-level regions of China. In 2018, there was a small improvement, but it remained bottom of the ranking. This was in sharp contrast with the performance for more than a decade before 2016, when the city was accustomed to being a national leader in economic growth.

To reverse the tide and restore former glory, in the past two years, Tianjin has dedicated itself to improving developmental quality and efficiency. 

The old growth drivers were replaced with new ones. In the first half of this year,  the service sector accounted for 56% of the city's total GDP, with its added value  increasing 5.6%; among the industrial enterprises with annual revenue from their main business operations of 20 million yuan or more, the added value gain achieved by equipment manufacturing enterprises was 3.2 percentage points faster than that of the city's industry; the figure for strategic emerging industries grew 1.7 percentage points faster than the city's average; the output of new-energy vehicles increased more than 40 times; the output of service and industrial robots increased more than 40%. 

The business environment also improved. In the first half of this year, the municipal government reduced taxes and fees worth 33.5 billion yuan. In the same period, investment in fixed assets increased 17.4% year-on-year.

The municipal government has also worked hard to improve public well-being through development. In the first half of this year, the number of new jobs created grew 1.1% year-on-year; the unemployment rate in the urban area remained below 3.5%; the per capita disposable income of residents rose 7.0%; per capita consumption increased 8.6%.

Meanwhile, the municipal government has been exerting all its efforts to seek opportunities from the coordinated development of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region. In the first half of this year, more than 15,000 professionals gained permanent residency in Tianjin; the proportion of investment made by Beijing and Hebei province-based enterprises in the city accounted for 47.9% of the city total; 31.8% of goods imported or exported through customs in Tianjin came from Beijing and Hebei. 

"When overcoming difficulties in development, finding the right direction is more important than pursuing speed," said Li Hongzhong, secretary of the Tianjin Municipal Committee of the Communist Party of China.

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