Long time ago, Tianjin used to be a trading dock. After it became a trading port in 1860, a lot of foreign merchants visited Tianjin. Before the foundation of the P.R.China(1949), the total export value of foreign trade accounted for 50%-60% of North China and domestic trade monopolized the whole sale of commerce in the North and became a commerce and trade center. After the foundation of the P.R.China£¨1949£©, Tianjin has become a transportation hub of exchanging materials between north and south and a distribution center for all kinds of goods and materials in the Northeast, Northwest and North China. Along with the development of the socialist market economy and deepening of the reform and open policy to the outside world, the function as the business and trade center of Tianjin has strengthened step by step. At the end of 1997, there are 656 of all kinds of markets in Tianjin, 16 local and national markets for production materials and elements. The volume of trade has been surmounted over YMB Y 120 billion. Market of dealing in futures have been set up approved by the State Council.

Before the foundation of the P.R.China, Tianjin used to be the second largest finance center in China and the largest financial market in North China with 10 domestic and foreign banks and the total capital accounting for 15% of China which is the head of the cities in the north China. After the foundation of the P.R.China, a financial system with unified administrative management was set up. After the Third Plenary Session of the Eleventh Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party, especially after 1990s, great changes have been taken place in the reform of Tianjin finance, forming a diversified financial institutions mainly based on three financial markets, as stock transaction, foreign exchange, capital circulation. There are more than 250 of all kinds of financial institutions. Among these institutions there are 13 foreign banks, 25 foreign financial agents. The scope of circulating funds is the second largest one only after Shanghai in China. In 1984, Tianjin carried out the development strategy of moving the industry to the east part of the city and set up the economic technology development zone and the Tianjin Port Free Trade Zone. In 1994, Tianjin put forward the strategic target of completion of the construction of the New Coastal Region in about 10 years. Located at the East of Tianjin, near Behai Sea, facing to the Pacific Ocean, the New Coastal Region consists of several districts, as : Tanggu, Hangu, Dagang, Dongli, and Jinnang with the planned area of 350 square kilometers. It is a front line of openning to the outside world of Tianjin with many big zones and companies, as: the Tianjin Harbor , the Development zone, the Free Trade Zone, the Ocean Hi-Tech Industrial Park, the Dagang Oil Field, the Seamless Steel Tubing Company, the Buohai Oil Company, the Tianjin Oil and Chemistry Company and three big chemical plants as well as the Ethylene Project with 120 thousand tons.

The fund of YMB 6 billion has been invested to the New CoastalRegion by Tianjin in recent years for the trasport infrastructure and energy facilities, etc. in order to improve the invested conditions. After many years development, the New Coastal Region has become a new growing part of Tianjin. At the end of 1995, the area in the New Coastal Region is 125 square kilometers, resident population is 1.05 million with 6112 total contracted foreign enterprises accounting for 65% of Tianjin; the total foreign investment to agree upon is US$ 6.45 billion accounting for 55% of Tianjin. In 1997, the domestic gross national product(GNP) of the New Coastal Region achieved RMB 38.206 billion accounting for 30.8% of Tianjin, per capital GNP realized 37.8 thousand which is the 2.7 times on the average level of Tianjin. According to incomplete statistics, more than 100 Hi-Tech projects have been set up in the New Coastal Region, as: oil chemical industry, ocean chemical industry, electronics, communication, biological products, metallurgy and machinery, etc. with which a patch of pillar industry have been formed.

According to the overall plan of Tianjin, till 2003, the gross national products (GNP) in the New Coastal Region will reach RMB Y 100 billion, accounting for 50% of Tianjin, per capital RMB Y 70 thousand, that means a new Tianjin will appear.

Tianjin has defined its overall aim in national economic and social development, that is, till 2010 , Tianjin will try to be one of China's earliest modernized regions, the center of commerce, trade and finance in North China, a comprehensive industrial base of advanced technology and a modernized international seaport metropolis opening in all directions.