This neighbour to Beijing overlooking Bohai Sea was among the first group of cities that the central government decided to open up to foreign investment and trade two decades ago.

Now, as the nation stands at the brink of accession to the World Trade Organization, its mayor anticipates further co-operations with multi-national companies.

To meet this challenge, the municipality is working to improve its investment environment by installing urban facilities and transportation and by reforming its foreign trade rules.

The city has worked out a dozen preferential policies to back up overseas investment and has recently established two special funds to support technological renovation and development of high-tech.

The 17-year-old Tianjin Economic and Technological Development Area (TEDA) is expected to play a key role in this, having attracted more than 3,000 international enterprises.

TEDA, located in the east of Tianjin, was among the earliest economic and technical development areas on China's coastal area to facilitate overseas investment.

With a land area of more than 30 square kilometers, TEDA was previously a wild and deserted bit of wasteland. A decade of development turned it into the pride of the town.

A total of 3,378 overseas companies from 60 countries and regions have settled here as of July for a total contracted overseas investment of US$15 billion. Motorola and Samsung have built factories in TEDA.

The gross domestic product of TEDA has reached 16.9 billion yuan (US$2 billion) in the first seven months of this year, a year-on-year increase of 21.4 percent.

Tianjin's new goal is to attract more high-tech industries involving information and biomedical technology to TEDA.

The mayor is confident that Beijing's successful bidding for hosting the 2008 Olympic Games will also create opportunities for economic and social development in Tianjin, which will host some of the sports events.

The city will build a new 60,000-seat stadium. The Tianjin Airport will be renovated and expanded to serve as a back-up for Beijing Capital International Airport.

In order to attract more tourists, the city will build 18 new scenery sites and provide some new services with partners in Beijing and Hebei Province.

Light rail and subway transportation will be constructed that will link the downtown areas to coastal new districts.

Some cultural facilities such as museums will also be built.

More efforts will be made to upgrade the urban environment and protect the Bohai Sea and other water bodies, the mayor claimed.

(China Daily 09/03/2001)