China plans to build world-class advanced factory clusters in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei (Jing-Jin-Ji) region focused on products such as electric vehicles and biomedicine, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) said on Tuesday, as the country is seeking to improve its technological self-reliance and competitiveness in global production chains.

"Faced with new situations, new tasks, and new requirements, as an important industrial development highland in China, the task of promoting coordinated industrial development in Jing-Jin-Ji is even more urgent," said the MIIT, which together with the National Development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Science and Technology, and the local governments of Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei issued a joint plan over the coordinated industrial development of the region recently.

According to the plan, the region's development will focus on sectors such as integrated circuits, network security and power equipment and the biopharmaceutical industry, aiming to overcome key technological problems in the industrial chain.

The region will also develop industries in new energy vehicles, intelligent connected vehicles, biomedicine, hydrogen energy and robots, as well as research on artificial intelligence, life sciences, and aerospace technology, according to the plan.

Over the last decade, China has sought to integrate the economies of the cities of Beijing and Tianjin and the surrounding Hebei Province to create a new way of economic development, reduce income gaps in the region and curb pollution.

In recent years, the coordinated industrial development of the region has achieved landmark results. 

As of the end of 2022, the industrial added value of the region reached 2,511.44 billion yuan, 1.5 times that of 2013, with an average annual growth rate of 4.5 percent. The region has cultivated over 1,100 "little giant" firms, small- and medium-sized enterprises that specialize in niche sectors, command high market shares and boast strong innovative capacity, accounting for 12 percent of the country's total, according to the MIIT.

The ministry said that to build the region into a growth pole for the innovative development of advanced manufacturing and a demonstration zone for coordinated industrial development, the government will speed up the integration of government services, improve the region's business environment, and explore sharing mechanisms of investment, implementation and benefit distribution of major trans-regional projects. 

(With input from agencies)