The city's economic operation data in the first quarter was recently announced: the regional GDP increased by 5.3% year-on-year, and the economy achieved a "good start". Since the beginning of this year, Tianjin has thoroughly studied and implemented the spirit of General Secretary Xi Jinping's important speech during his inspection of Tianjin, focused on the central task of economic construction and the primary task of high-quality development, and took the coordinated development of Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei as the strategic traction, fully implemented the important requirements of "four good works", thoroughly implemented the "ten actions" for high-quality development, and focused on promoting the "three new" and "three quantity" work, and achieved hard-won results in economic development.
The economic operation continued to pick up and improve, and new achievements were made in high-quality development
Both the quantity and quality of economic development have risen. In the first quarter, Tianjin's GDP reached 389.008 billion yuan, and the economic growth rate was 1 percentage point faster than that of last year. Compared with the growth of economic scale, the improvement of economic development efficiency is more eye-catching. From the perspective of fiscal revenue, in the first quarter, the city's general public budget revenue increased by 7.3%, of which tax revenue increased by 5.0%, reflecting the continuous optimization of the city's tax sources and the continuous consolidation of the tax base. From the perspective of business efficiency, from January to February, the total profit of industrial enterprises above designated size in the city increased by 17.9%, and the profit margin of operating income was 6.69%, both indicators are better than the national level, reflecting the continuous improvement of enterprise production and operation capacity and the continuous improvement of market operating environment.
The ability to innovate and develop continues to increase. In the first quarter, the added value of Tianjin's equipment manufacturing industry increased by 6.0% year-on-year, accounting for 31.2% of the industries above designated size, and the added value of the high-tech manufacturing industry above the designated size increased by 8.6%, accounting for 14.7%, indicating remarkable results in the high-quality development of the manufacturing industry. The output of high-tech products continued to expand, and the output of new energy vehicles, urban rail vehicles, integrated circuits, and industrial robots increased by 41.4%, 17.4%, 13.0%, and 9.0% respectively. The growth trend of science and technology service industry is good, of which the added value of information transmission software and information technology service industry, scientific research and technical service industry increased by 10.2% and 8.8% respectively, and the supporting role of the service industry in the construction of a modern industrial system has been significantly enhanced.
Investment in fixed assets has become more active. In the first quarter, the city's investment in fixed assets (excluding rural households) increased by 5.9% year-on-year, completely reversing the downward trend since last year and achieving positive growth. Data show that in the first quarter, investment in strategic emerging industries increased by 18.3 percent, investment in industrial technological transformation increased by 14.8 percent, and investment in information transmission and information technology services increased by 50.8 percent. The investment market is becoming more and more dynamic, with private investment increasing by 13.6 percent, 7.7 percentage points higher than the city's investment, and accounting for 4.4 percentage points of the city's investment compared with last year, reflecting the confidence of private operators in Tianjin's economic development and the continuous improvement of market expectations.
The increasing number of factors for positive development has promoted the economy from a "good start" to a "long-term red"
Innovation-driven forces are accumulating. Tianjin firmly grasps scientific and technological innovation and industrial innovation at the same time, continuously enhances the ability of innovation source, achievement transformation, and scientific and technological innovation services, and accelerates the cultivation and development of new quality productive forces according to local conditions. According to the data, Tianjin's R&D investment intensity will reach 3.66% in 2023, and the comprehensive scientific and technological innovation level index will reach 83.5%, both of which rank third in the country, and the strength of scientific and technological innovation will increase rapidly. At the beginning of this year, Huayuan Science and Technology Park of Binhai High-tech Zone was included in the overall spatial layout of "one core, two wings and multiple points" of TFI Park, and the development of science and technology innovation is gaining momentum. Since the opening of the park, more than 1,500 companies have settled in the park, covering many scientific and technological fields such as new energy, new materials, synthetic biology, artificial intelligence, etc., and the park's innovation source ability and scientific and technological innovation vitality have been continuously improved.
The advantages of an open economy continue to be demonstrated. With the goal of building an important node of the domestic cycle and an important strategic fulcrum of the domestic and international dual circulation, Tianjin continues to accelerate the construction of a new system of a higher-level open economy, and continues to accelerate the pace of exploring the pilot free trade zone, so as to create new advantages of channel-based, platform-based, institutional, urban-based and ocean-based opening-up. In the first quarter, Tianjin Port completed a container throughput of 5.412 million TEUs, a year-on-year increase of 7.2%, a record high, and the supporting role of port and shipping transportation in the construction of the economic hinterland has been continuously improved. Tianjin further promotes the development of regional integration, continues to explore the innovation of the system and mechanism of Beijing-Tianjin co-urbanization, actively integrates into the construction of a world-class urban agglomeration with the capital as the core, and comprehensively drives economic construction with the coordinated development of Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei.
The consumer market continues to boom. Consumption, as the final link of the entire economic activity, plays an important role in regulating reproduction, and only when consumption is strong can we promote the smooth circulation of the national economy and realize the efficient operation of the economy. In the first quarter, Tianjin's total retail sales of consumer goods increased by 1.8%, from the perspective of growth rate alone, consumption growth lagged behind the growth of regional output value and fixed asset investment growth, but from a longer-term perspective, the consumer market in the same period last year took the lead in achieving rapid growth, and this year's consumer market continued to grow on the basis of last year's high consumption growth, and the development momentum is good. In the first quarter, new energy vehicles increased by 19.0%, smartphones by 9.5%, and household appliances and audio-visual equipment by 6.0%. This year, the state issued the "Action Plan for Promoting Large-scale Equipment Renewal and Trade-in of Consumer Goods", and with the help of this major consumption policy, the large-scale expansion of upgraded consumption is worth looking forward to. Since the beginning of this year, from the seven-day Spring Festival holiday to the past Qingming holiday, Tianjin's cultural tourism market has become a popular tourist destination in the country.
The "good start" of the economy in the first quarter has boosted the enthusiasm of the whole city, gathered confidence in promoting development, and believed that Tianjin's economy will take advantage of the momentum and achieve greater development results.