A PROGRAM to integrate Beijing’s economy with neighbors Tianjin and Hebei has brought tangible benefits and helped ease income gaps, a government official said, amid complaints the pace of reform has been too slow.

China announced plans to create the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei northern super-region, also known as Jing-Jin-Ji, in 2014, as it sought to upgrade the heavy industrial economy of the smog-prone Hebei Province while easing congestion, pollution and overdevelopment in the capital.

Firms would be encouraged to relocate from Beijing to Hebei and Tianjin by introducing unified regulations, social services and an integrated transport network. The government also established the new Xiongan zone in Hebei last year where some of Beijing’s “non-capital” government functions and industries will be relocated.

The plan has already helped reduce a chronic income gap that forced Hebei to rely on low-end industries while its workers flooded into Beijing in search of better-paid jobs, said Dang Xiaolong, head of Hebei’s economic planning body.

“The Central Government’s vigorous promotion of integrated development in Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei ... has brought immeasurable development potential to our province,” said Dang, who also chairs Hebei’s special office to promote regional integration.

“Because of gaps in development, industrial layout, innovation capability and the endowment of natural resources, the income gap between Beijing and Hebei has existed for a long time — this is a long-term, historical problem,” he said.

But integration efforts have already helped to raise average annual disposable income in Hebei to 21,484 yuan (US$3,401.30) in 2017, up 41.4 percent since 2013, he said.

(SD-Agencies)