China's economic restructuring to benefit more cities

Four years ago, Chinese leaders took a strategic decision to shift the country's growth model from an export-oriented to a domestic-driven one. Under this strategy, the high-tech, transportation, and airplane manufacturing industries of many Chinese cities have been catapulted into a fast track.

Tianjin, a port city in northern China, recorded unprecedented economic growth in 2011. CCTV reporter takes a closer look at the driving force behind the city's GDP number.

Just a half-hour bullet train ride from Beijing, a 200-mile-per-hour shot through open farmland and industrial sprawl, Tianjin has long been known as a shipping hub famous for its extraordinarily tasty fried dough twists, or Mahua.

Tianjin's GDP officially grew by 16.4 percent in 2011. It's the highest in China and faster than any country in the world except Qatar. And figures show that much of this growth was driven by its Binhai New Area.

The Binhai New Area, an 876 square-mile swath of salt pan, wetlands, and old fishing villages is now home to 2.48 million of the city's 11 million inhabitants.

Against the headwinds of the global economic downturn, the new area generated a total GDP of more than 320 billion yuan in the first 8 months of the year, inching up by more than 20 percent compared with the same period last year.

And now, the local government is moving ahead making new investment plans and paving the way for economic growth that is to be driven by additional infrastructure and high-tech manufacturing spending.

Zhou Fengliang, Bureau Chief of Science and Technology Commission of Binhai new area, says, "More than 95 percent of capital for the area's science and technology development is used for supporting the growth of our businesses. And more than 90 percent of our supported R&D platform is propped up by enterprises. So the innovative power of enterprises is a major driving force for the area's growth."

And in the wave of China's economic transformation propelled by high-tech manufacturers. Tianjin's high-tech companies are blossoming. The number of high-tech SMEs has been propelled up by 2800, reaching 9400.

Zhang Lin, director of development of Tianjin Motimo Memberane Tech, says, "We've been treated as the principal component of technology innovation. So our incentives are spurred so that our R&D capacity and productivity are improving."

The Binhai New Area "is already the country's third engine of economic take-off after the Shenzhen Special Economic Zone and the Shanghai Pudong New Area.

Officials from the new area are hoping that its experiences acquired in funding, emphasizing the development of its high-tech companies, will contribute to China's economic recovery.