Some 2,500 small enterprises in four southern districts of Beijing will be closed by the end of this year to improve air quality, according to a media report.

The businesses are in districts including Fengtai, Fangshan, Tongzhou and Daxing, which have seen more severe air pollution than the northern part of the capital.

The Beijing municipal government said large-sized ventures that were major polluters and high energy consumers have been moved out of the city although Xinhua News Agency reported that small businesses such as restaurants, hostels and automobile repairers had been to the detriment of residents' health.

By 2017, the four districts will remove all small enterprises of those kinds, the municipal government said.