On April 1, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the State Council, China's Cabinet, jointly announced the Xiongan New Area will be established in Hebei province. The new zone, located about 100 kilometers south of Beijing, will house the offices and facilities that are not related to the capital, and thus offload some of Beijing's "non-capital functions". It will also create a new model of optimized development in densely populated areas and restructure the urban layout of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region.

The Xiongan New Area, according to the announcement, is a historic and strategic choice, and being similar to the Shenzhen Special Economic Zone in South China's Guangdong province and the Shanghai Pudong New Area in East China, it will serve as an economic engine and advance the coordinated development of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region.

In fact, the Xiongan New Area has greater potential than the Shenzhen and Shanghai zones. It will start as an 100 sq km zone, and in the long run cover 2,000 sq km - an area larger than that of the Shenzhen SEZ's 1,900 sq km and the Pudong zone's 1,700 sq km. And being close to Beijing, the new economic zone will enjoy incomparable geographical advantages.