BEIJING, Jan. 15 (Xinhua) -- The mayor of Beijing has said that the city will speed up sub-center construction in the eastern suburb of Tongzhou District with the addition of more offices and public facilities.
Beijing will start building the second phase of the administrative office zone in Tongzhou, designed to take over the administrative functions shifted out of the city center, Chen Jining said in his government report delivered at the annual session of the Beijing Municipal People's Congress on Monday.
So far, a number of key municipal organs have moved their offices from downtown Beijing to Tongzhou.
The report said Tongzhou aims to build a comprehensive transport hub.
The district will also add public service facilities including school, theater, library, museum, hospital and stadium, some of which will start construction this year. The construction of a Universal Studios theme park will also be accelerated.
"We are working on 235 major projects in 2019 with 136 currently under construction. A total of 75 billion yuan (11.1 billion U.S. dollars) has been invested," Tan Xuxiang, director of the Beijing Municipal Commission of Development and Reform, was quoted as saying by Tuesday's China Daily.
Zhao Lei, director of Tongzhou and a deputy to the congress, told the newspaper that the district had completed 19 projects this year and that the green space in the sub-center will be substantially increased to reach 41 square km by 2035.
