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The China New Media Development Zone (CNM) in Daxing district plans to complete the relocation of 75 industrial enterprises outside Beijing by 2017, a move to help Beijing adjust and upgrade its industries.
Yang Zhigao, deputy secretary of the CNM’s party committee, said the enterprises will find new homes in Hebei and Tianjin.
He explained that most enterprises made the decision to leave proactively, tempted by the opportunities from the integrated development of Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei.
“Labor costs in Beijing keep rising, as do water and energy costs, so many enterprises are taking the initiative to move out,” Yang said.
Cai Changxian, an executive of the Vicutu Garment Company in CNM, said that relocating the plant to Hengshui city in Hebei will help recruit more stable and experienced workers at lower costs.
Cai said most of the workers now are young people who present more liquidity in labor: “we lose 30 percent of the workers after Spring Festival each year, that puts a heavy burden on us to recruit and train new workers, and will also affect the production line.”
Vicutu already relocated more than 500 workers and managers to Hengshui last year, and recruited 300 more there. Hengshui government offered shuttle buses on Monday and Saturday for those who have to go back and forth between Beijing and Hengshui.
Cai said the existing workshops in CNM will be transformed into an incubator to attract costume designers to settle down.
“The designers we acknowledged will be exempt from rent for three to six months,” Cai said. Vicutu can offer garment manufacturing and marketing services to start-up clothing designers, Cai added.
The relocation started in 2013. 68 enterprises with 2,914 employees, most of them low-end manufacturers, have relocated outside the capital city, according to Yang Zhigao.
He added that 14 enterprises will complete relocation this year, and seven more will start the process at the end of 2015. Yang also noted that 37 enterprises to remain will transform and upgrade the industrial structure.
The CNM has continued to drive the development of cultural creative industries. Enterprises represented by Xinhuanet, ZhongSou.com and Star Park have witnessed remarkable growth.
Beijing, nagged by urban woes such as an exploding population and increasingly severe pollution, is taking action to relocate departments with “no-capital functions” out of the city to contain population expansion and pollution. It will focus on the development of high-end technology and the service sector.
