Cao Xiaohong, vice-mayor of Tianjin. [Photo by Zou Hong/China Daily]

Northern port city to tap fresh growth seams for industrial transformation

Tianjin, a northern port city, made considerable progress in its efforts to achieve high-quality development last year and will continue to press ahead with more steps to unlock fresh growth seams, a top local government official said on Friday.

"Tianjin is accelerating the push for high-quality development, aiming to build a big intelligent industrial innovation system and foster a big intelligent industrial cluster," said Cao Xiaohong, vice-mayor of Tianjin.

Cao made the remarks on Friday at the seventh session of Vision China, a series of talks hosted by China Daily.

"Tianjin is closely tied to the smart technologies sector through the annual World Intelligence Congress and will look to be a part of the new round of technological revolution and industrial transformation," Cao said.

The annual World Intelligence Congress, a global conference on leading technologies, will help further pursue the industrial upgrading and transformation as well as high-quality economic and social development, she said.

Tianjin is shifting from high-speed economic growth to high-quality development. During the first quarter of this year, value-added industrial output in the city grew 4.8 percent year-on-year to 216 billion yuan ($38 billion), 2.2 percentage points higher than the number in 2018. Value-added equipment manufacturing output surged 6.4 percent year-on-year, accounting for 33.1 percent of the city's total industrial output.

Zhang Guoqing, mayor of Tianjin, said the city is keeping its development on a healthy track and gearing up for high-quality development.

"We are focusing on industrial transformation and upgrading," Zhang said earlier this year during the Two Sessions in Beijing. "Our efforts may temporarily affect the current GDP growth rate, but we have the resolve to tackle problems and pursue green, sustainable development."

Tianjin is also shaping up to become a high-tech hub and has rolled out a series of supportive policies to develop the artificial intelligence sector, aiming to inject new impetus into the city's economic growth.

In December, Tianjin unveiled a three-year plan to boost the innovative development of seven AI-related industrial chains, including the independent and controllable information system, smart security, big data, advanced communications, intelligent connected vehicles, industrial robots and intelligent terminals.

According to the plan, the government will build Tianjin into an AI innovation center and make it a hub for AI industries and AI innovative applications by 2020.

Last May, Tianjin set up a 100 billion yuan fund to invest in AI technologies, focusing on emerging fields including robots, smart software and hardware as well as intelligent vehicles.