Stocks bullish on regional integration around Beijing

An investor smiles in front of a screen displaying stock indices and prices of shares at a securities brokerage in Fuyang, Anhui province, April 3, 2015. [Asianewsphoto by Lu Qijian]

Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei integration-themed stocks rallied on the expectation that a detailed plan on the regional collaborative development will be launched later this month, reported Economic Information on Friday.

Forty-two out of 66 stocks in the sector saw gains on Friday, with seven companies, including Hebei province-based Xuanhua Construction Machinery Co and Beijing Shougang Company Ltd surge to daily limit of 10 percent.

By the year 2017, Beijing and neighboring Tianjin municipality and Hebei province are set to make progress in transport integration, environmental protection and coordinated industrial development, reported the Economic Information citing insiders familiar to the draft plan.

The integration provides opportunities for Beijing to remove its non-capital functions out of the city, as the city is supporting too many people with limited resources, said the city's vice-mayor Li Shixiang.

A mid-term goal of the project is to alleviate the problems Beijing faces and rein in the city's population to around 23 million by 2020, while the region aims at elevating its competitiveness and take a leading role in the national economy by 2030, added the report.

The initiative for the integration and coordination of Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei province was put forward by the President Xi Jinping in Feb 2014, in a bid to balance development, the environment, population and resources.

The development of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei cluster will be prioritized this year, said the Vice-Premier Zhang Gaoli at the China Development Forum on March 22.