Aerial photo taken on April 1, 2017 shows Anxin county, North China's Hebei province.[Photo/Xinhua]

XIONGAN — A total of 48 companies, including Alibaba, Tencent and Baidu, will set up branches in Xiongan New Area, its management committee said on Thursday.

These 48 companies are the first group approved by the committee in the area. Nine of them have been granted business licenses.

Jingdong Finance, 360 Qihoo, Shenzhen Kuang-Chi, State Development & Investment Corporation, China Telecom, and People's Insurance Company (Group) of China Ltd (PICC) are also on the list.

Fourteen companies are leading Chinese information technology firms, 15 are in finance, seven are research institutes, and five are focused on green technology.

Nineteen of them are centrally-administered State-owned enterprises and 21 are private companies.

High-end and high-tech companies will be the mainstream of industry in the area, the committee said.

China announced plans in April to establish the Xiongan New Area, a new economic zone about 100 kilometers southwest of Beijing. It covers Hebei's Xiongxian, Rongcheng and Anxin counties.