CASS President Wang Weiguang and Vice-President Cai Fang jointly unveil the nameplate for the newly established think tank on Xiongan New Area planning affiliated with CASS.

---

          

A new think tank affiliated with the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS) was established on July 18 to offer advice on the design of Xiongan New Area.

Hosted by three CASS institutions—the Institute of Industrial Economics, the Think Tank for Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei Coordinated Development, and the Economy and Management Publishing House—the launch ceremony and the forum drew more than a hundred delegates from CASS, the National Development and Reform Commission, the Development Research Center of the State Council and the Administrative Committee of the Xiongan New Area.

In April, China announced it would establish the Xiongan New Area in Hebei Province to promote the coordinated development of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei (BTH) region. And authorities are seeking advice nationwide to develop the area.

CASS President Wang Weiguang, addressing the launch ceremony, iterated that the decision to establish Xiongan New Area is a major historic and strategic choice made by the CPC Central Committee. CASS has decided to establish this high-level think tank to take full advantage of its research resources and academic influence in support of the project, he said.

Through sophisticated urban planning, Xiongan, home to Baiyangdian, one of the largest freshwater wetlands in north China, will be transformed into a smart, green model city built on the principles of creativity, openness and inclusiveness, Wang said.

Wang said Xiongan will serve as a core city designed to attract domestic and international talents as well as universities, research institutes, enterprises and high-tech industry. The new area will also promote the coordinated development of Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei and accelerate the formation of a world-class city cluster, he said.

As the key think tank for the CPC Central Committee and the State Council, CASS has a responsibility and obligation to offer its intellectual support to the new area, CASS Vice-President Cai Fang said.

Cai said CASS will help the country turn the plan into reality by taking pioneering steps to realize the city’s promising future. He also stressed the importance of fostering synchronized planning and coordinated development of industrial, ecological and service sectors of the new zone.

Huang Qunhui, director of the Institute of Industrial Economics of CASS, said that improving living standards and promoting the legacy of refined Chinese traditional culture will be some of the hot topics for future research on Xiongan New Area’s development.

At the forum that followed the launch of the think tank, scholars brainstormed about ways Xiongan could be used to curb urban sprawl, bridge growth disparities and restructure the urban layout in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region. The new area will help phase out some non-capital functions from Beijing and explore a new model of optimized development in densely populated areas and cultivate new innovation-driven growth poles.

 

 

 

 

WANG CHUNYAN is a reporter at the Chinese Social Sciences Today.