Beijing to shut 500 manufacturing companies, 176 markets in 2018

Beijing plans to shut 500 manufactiring companies and 176 markets and logistics centres in 2018, as part of its exonomic restructuring plans.

Xinhua news agency reported on Saturday that by 2020, 1000 manufacturing companies and 300 markets and logistics centres would have been closed as part of a bigger initiative to balance and integrate the economies of the cities of Beijing, Tianjin and the Hebei province.

The plan will also involve the construction of Xiongan, a new development in Hebei.

Liu Bozheng, deputy director of the Beijing office overseeing the integration of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, said at a press conference recently that as part of the closures, several universities and hospitals will be relocated to suburban areas.

Beijing, home to 22 million people, is trying to curb population growth and relocate industries and what it calls “non-capital functions” to Hebei to curb pollution and ease congestion.