Tianjin Port is an important shipping hub in north China.

In the first six months of this year the coastal city of Tianjin recorded its highest growth in gross domestic product (GDP) in 16 years, sources from the city's statistics administration said recently.

"The GDP of Tianjin reached 295.19 billion yuan during the first half of the year, up 16.3 percent," said Zhang Qiang, deputy director of Tianjin Bureau of Statistics.

It is the municipality's biggest GDP percentage jump since 1992.

Zhang forecast that Tianjin's GDP growth during the second half will be equally robust, exceeding 16 percent year-on-year.

With the high growth, the city's energy consumption measured per unit of GDP dropped by 4.4 percent in the first six months, reflecting the city's efforts to enhance energy efficiency.

The city's manufacturing sector created a combined incremental value of 163.59 billion yuan from January to June, an increase of 21 percent over the same period of 2007.

The value of Tianjin's service sector increased by 14 percent year-on-year during the period.

Rising GDP

"Tianjin's service industry has achieved a fairly high increase, thanks to our efforts to raise its share in the city's overall economic structure," Zhang said.

The city's per capita GDP now exceeds $6,000, providing the impetus for Tianjin to drive its service industry further forward, which will in return strengthen its overall economy, said Wu Zhenyuan, a senior statistician.

"With Tianjin's GDP surpassing 500 billion yuan last year and per capital GDP reaching $6,000, we believe that local service industry will bloom," Wu said.

Tianjin's service industry grew 14 percent in 2007, the highest in a decade, to contribute 40.3 percent to the city's GDP last year.