A conference promoting the construction of the China-Japan (Tianjin) Health Industry Development Cooperation Demonstration Zone was held in Tianjin’s Jinghai district on May 12.

Kobe representatives resident in China, officials from Tianjin municipal governmental departments and local institutions as well as central and municipal mainstream media outlets gathered to review the progress of the project and make suggestions for promoting the high-quality development of the health industry.

A conference promoting the construction of the China-Japan (Tianjin) Health Industry Development Cooperation Demonstration Zone is held in Tianjin’s Jinghai district on May 12.

The project was approved by the National Development and Reform Commission in April 2020. Thanks to the support of the NDRC and local government over the last year, a joint conference mechanism has been launched, and the general planning and the reform of the system and mechanism of the project have been completed.

This April, the municipal government gave an official reply to the general plan and proposed the goal of building a health industry innovation zone, a healthy lifestyle pilot zone and an international cooperation demonstration zone.

A bird’s-eye view of the demonstration zone

The China-Japan (Tianjin) Health Industry Development Cooperation Demonstration Zone is unveiled in the coastal city of Tianjin on June 30, 2020. 

Construction of the demonstration zone is progressing well. It has recruited 50 highly-educated talents; the Tuanbo Avenue has opened to traffic; construction of Tianjin Medical University and a suburban rail way has started, and an affiliated school of Beijing Normal University has opened.

In addition, Tianjin and Beijing have signed a cooperation agreement on opening a campus of Peking Union Medical College Hospital in Tianjin, the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences has signed an agreement to launch a health institute and a graduate school in Tianjin, and China and Japan have expressed their intention to open a health examination center in the demonstration zone.

Staff workers in a lab in the demonstration zone

The demonstration zone plans to build 39 projects with a total investment of 33.1 billion yuan ($5.13 billion), including 15 projects in its first phase and 24 in the following phases. About 5 billion yuan will be invested in these projects this year.

Over the past year, the zone has been actively carrying out the national strategy for the coordinated development of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region and the Healthy China Initiative and focusing on cultivating its competitiveness in innovation, production and services as it aims to build a world-class health industrial cluster.

As a group of high-quality projects floods in the zone is becoming a prioritized destination for international and domestic players in the health industry.

As a cooperation project between a Chinese city and a Japanese city, the demonstration zone features four leading industries -- medical care, education, sports, and rehabilitation and recuperation. It is developing an Internet plus medical care model while promoting a healthy lifestyle through offering more service facilities and a more livable environment.

Taking advantage of the innovation resources of local medical university and research institute as well as leading medical experts including Zhang Boli and Wang Chen, the zone will develop new Chinese medicine through optimizing the classic and traditional ones and conduct research on Western medicine with a special focus on clinical treatment of hematopathy and regenerative medicine.

It also underpins the transformation and application of scientific and technological achievements and aims to incubate more projects involving key technologies. 

Jinghai supports the zone’s development through preferential policies and promotes reforms to delegate power, streamline administration and optimize government services. The district also advanced reforms in investment and financing, industrial development, land utilization, livelihood improvement and ecological protection.

Meanwhile, Jinghai strives to build the zone into a pilot area for carrying out reform and opening-up.

In addition, Jinghai is accelerating cooperation and exchange with Japan’s regional government, enterprises and non-government parties via the demonstration zone and hopes to launch more landmark cooperation projects between China and Japan.

The district has been adhering to the principal of protecting the ecology and striving to build an ecologically friendly environment.