Polluting industries told to go

Heavily polluting factories are to be moved out of central Beijing because they do not represent the right image for an international capital, the city's leaders have decided.

City authorities want state-owned industrial enterprises to be shifted out of the city centre and into the suburbs within the next five years, the China Economic Times, reported.

A total of 738 enterprises will be affected.

Beijing's rapid development of industry in the 1950s, when jobs were found for more than 300,000 unemployed people, resulted in the emergence of heavily polluting enterprises.

Businesses that do not co-operate with the plan will see taxes increase and benefits drop. Those that move will be able to share in the state's land sale profits.