Ni Yuefeng, Party secretary of Hebei and a deputy to the 14th National People's Congress, said Xiong'an is strengthening its innovation capacity, with more than 60 upstream and downstream companies now clustering in the aerospace information and satellite internet sectors.

"High-end industries such as artificial intelligence and new materials are also being nurtured, and the city's innovation atmosphere is becoming stronger while its popularity continues to grow," he said, according to Xinhua News Agency.

Hebei is deepening coordinated innovation and industrial cooperation with Beijing and Tianjin while actively integrating into the Beijing (Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei) International Center for Science and Technology Innovation.

Six industrial chains — including robotics, new energy and intelligent connected vehicles — along with five clusters such as life and health, and safety emergency equipment, are gaining momentum across the province.

Beijing has been accelerating the transfer of scientific and technological achievements across the region, data from the Beijing Municipal Commission of Development and Reform shows.

In 2025, the value of technology contracts flowing from Beijing to Tianjin and Hebei reached 99.61 billion yuan ($14.44 billion). During the 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-25) period, the cumulative value exceeded 320 billion yuan, 1.7 times that of the previous five-year plan period.

This year marks the 12th anniversary of the coordinated development strategy for the region. According to the Beijing Municipal Commission of Development and Reform, the combined GDP of Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei reached nearly 12 trillion yuan in 2025, up 5.4 percent year-on-year, and 0.4 percentage points higher than the national average. The region has continued to show strong momentum in more innovation-driven and higher-quality growth.

Science and technology innovation has become a central pillar of that transformation. In recent years, national policies have placed greater emphasis on strengthening cross-regional innovation cooperation in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, with technological collaboration highlighted as a key driver of long-term, high-quality development.

In the Government Work Report delivered on Thursday at the opening of the fourth session of the 14th National People's Congress, China's top legislature, in Beijing, Premier Li Qiang reiterated China's push to strengthen self-reliance in science and technology and deepen the integration of technological and industrial innovation.

The report also called for developing Beijing and the broader Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, alongside the Yangtze River Delta and the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, into international centers for scientific and technological innovation and turning them into world-class engines of innovation.

The idea was first raised in December 2025, when the Central Economic Work Conference proposed expanding the "Beijing International Center for Science and Technology Innovation" into the broader "Beijing (Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei) International Center for Science and Technology Innovation".

"This is a major adjustment of the national innovation system," Yi Tong, director of the Beijing Academy of Science and Technology's innovation and development strategy research institute and an NPC deputy, told Beijing Daily. "Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei now forms one of three strategic hubs for national technological innovation."