The Hebei Province sports industry work meeting was held on May 4th in Shijiazhuang, the capital city of the province. It was reported that at the meeting, the province appointed six industry sectors as the main development areas within the sports industry. They are fitness and leisure, smart sports, spectator sports events and sports shows, sports training, sporting goods manufacturing & services and the sports lottery. 

These six sectors are expected to be specifically developed to form a cluster of industry sectors. 

To develop the fitness and leisure sector, Hebei province plans to transform large-scale sports venues, provide sporting facilities in tourist areas and to build cycling paths, pedestrian paths and hiking routes in rural countries, helping to provide a strong infrastructure for the fitness and leisure sector. 

Government sport offices and sports federations are expected to collaborate in organizing international, national, regional (Beijing-Tianjin-Heibei), and amateur and youth events, building well-known sporting event brands at international and national level. 

The province will encourage non-government organizations and companies to organize  and develop sports training clubs and camps, especially winter and summer sports camps, to drive the development of related business chains in the sports training sector. 

The sporting goods manufacturing sector should undertake more innovation in products and technology, enhance their services to help build top-class companies and brands in this sector. 

Hebei Province published its 13th five-year plan for the sports industry in early 2017. The plan outlined that the goal for its total sports industry scale was CNY150bn (USD23.55bn) by 2020. During the 13th five-year period (2016-2020), the speed of growth of the Heibei sports industry is expected to be above the GDP growth speed of the province and the average growth speed of the national sports industry. 

Source: hebnews 

Proofread by Raymond Fitzpatrick