On August 17, the 2025 Annual Meeting of the Economic Geography Society of China’s Committee on the Coordinated Development of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei Region and the Symposium on “New Features and New Directions of Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei Coordinated Development during the 15th Five-Year Plan Period” were held at the Institute of Economics and Social Development, Nankai University.

The conference invited Zhang Dongqiang, former Deputy Director-General of the Regional Economy Department of the National Development and Reform Commission; Sun Jiuwen, Honorary President of the Economic Geography Society of China; Zhang Keyun, President of the Economic Geography Society of China; Tian Xuebin, President of Hebei Open University; Shen Tiyan, Deputy Director of the Institute of Capital Development at Peking University; Wen Yuyuan, Professor at the School of Applied Economics, Renmin University of China; as well as more than 30 participants from the Institute of Economic and Social Development and the Institute of Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei Coordinated Development at Nankai University.

Experts engaged in in-depth discussions on the new features and new directions of Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei coordinated development during the 15th Five-Year Plan period.

The experts systematically reviewed the achievements of the past decade in areas such as policy coordination, economic development, innovation-driven growth, industrial complementarity, transportation connectivity, livelihood security, and ecological co-construction. They pointed out that the coordinated development of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region has entered a new stage, shifting from a period of scale expansion to a phase of structural optimization. This stage is characterized by new features, including the transformation of economic growth drivers, breakthroughs in spatially coordinated layouts, joint construction of innovation ecosystems, and the restructuring of industrial systems.

In addition, the experts carried out in-depth discussions on new directions such as promoting deeper integration of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region and building world-class city clusters and metropolitan areas.

Participants in the discussion also included Professor Liu Binglian, Dean of the Institute of Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei Coordinated Development; Professor Li Lanbing, Director of the Development Strategy Department; Professor Zhou Mi, Director of the China Center for Urban and Regional Studies; and Professor Zhang Gui, Secretary-General of the Institute of Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei Coordinated Development.

The new ideas, directions, and concrete suggestions put forward by the participating experts provided important intellectual support and decision-making reference for promoting higher-quality and more advanced coordinated development of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region in the next stage.