A smart container terminal at Tianjin Port in North China's Tianjin on Jan 17, 2021. (Photo by Xinhua)

The Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei Regional Development Index for 2021 has increased to 138.9, up 7.7 points year-on-year, according to statistics released by the National Bureau of Statistics on Dec 28.

The index measures the development of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region in five aspects: innovation, coordination, sustainability, openness and sharing.

Innovative development, green development and coordinated development are primary drivers, with three sub-indices of 153.0, 153.0 and 141.6 respectively.

While the open development and green development indices are growing fast, up by 19.9 and 8.5 respectively from the previous year, acting as the main forces of overall index growth.

Specifically, innovation momentum continued to grow, with the regional innovation development index of 153.0, up 5.5 from the previous year.

The regional openness development index is up by 19.9 to 119.3, with a recovery in imports and exports and the use of foreign investment.

In terms of foreign trade, the total import and export of goods within the region in 2021 were $687.4 billion, a year-on-year increase of 35.5 percent.

The share of regional exports of high-tech products in total exports increased by 4.7 percentage points to 28.7 percent than the last year.

As for the utilization of foreign investment, the actual amount of foreign direct investment used in the region in 2021 grew by 9.6 percent compared to the previous year, with Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei rising by 7.8 percent, 13.8 percent, and 13.4 percent respectively.

Editor: Li Wenpei