At the Winter Olympics concluded last month, China greeted guests from all over the world with ice and snow.

When receiving foreign leaders, heads of international organizations and other heavyweights, Beijing firmly followed the two key principles of "providing first-class services" and "ensuring epidemic prevention and control". It provided the best services to foreign guests and was the first to host any mega international sporting event and major diplomatic event with closed-loop management.

Behind the achievement are solid efforts to build Beijing into the center for international exchanges. On March 29, the Leading Group for Improving Beijing's Role as the International Exchange Center held a plenary meeting to review its work in 2021 and lay out key tasks for 2022. Beijing will give full play to its unique strengths as the dual Olympic city, and make new breakthroughs in building mechanisms for serving international exchanges, building functional areas and platforms, pooling resources and improving the environment, so as to break new grounds in strengthening Beijing's role as the center for international exchanges at a faster pace.

Serve the Country's Overall Diplomacy 

Beijing as the Key Place for Conducting Major Country Diplomacy with Chinese Characteristics in A New Era

China is gradually taking the center stage of the world. As China's capital and center for international exchanges, Beijing is the key place for conducting major country diplomacy with Chinese characteristics. According to records, Beijing has hosted nearly 10 major diplomatic events since the 18th CPC National Congress. It receives an average of 50 plus foreign leaders every year.

According to Beijing Foreign Affairs Office, Beijing will continue to build related facilities, enrich service supply, improve the environment for reception, and develop the service capability for head-of-state diplomacy and major country diplomacy that is in line with the needs of major country diplomacy with Chinese characteristics and Beijing's position as the center for international exchanges.

On the one hand, Beijing will develop relevant facilities. It will speed up efforts to improve the overall function of Yanqi Lake International Conference Resort and make it a professional and international place that can host all types of major diplomatic events. On this basis, Beijing will take the chances of urban renewal, application for UNESCO recognition of the Central Axis, and the building of a "museum city" to create a group of featured "national meeting rooms". It will promote the development of large exhibition facilities, such as the three cultural facilities of the Beijing Municipal Administrative Center, the second phase of the China National Convention Center, the second and third phases of the New China International Exhibition Center and the International Convention Center of Daxing International Airport Economic Zone, enhancing their service functions for major state events.

On the other hand, Beijing will improve its service capacity. It will strengthen its capability of hosting high-end conferences and deliver quality "Beijing services". It will fully tap into ancient capital culture, red histroric resources, sci-tech strengths and the heritage of both the Summer and Winter Olympics, improve key areas' environment and create a personalized, warm and international reception atmosphere. It will improve the regular working mechanism for major state events and build a fast, efficient and orderly operation service platform.

Beijing's Internationalization Level

Give Full Play to the "Magnetic Field Effect", Bring Together International High-End Factors

In the process of improving its role as the center for international exchanges, Beijing has focused on bringing together international high-end factors that are in line with its function and the city is growing ever more international.

In the past year, the Global Music Education League chose to locate in Beijing, and the BRICS Vaccine R&D Center and the Alliance of Open Science and International Innovation were established in Beijing. Multinational companies such as the Swire Group and Jardine Group have actively participated in the development of key areas and key projects. Sino-German, Sino-Japanese industrial parks and other international cooperation parks have been built in an orderly manner, and more than 70 projects have been implemented.

How to accelerate the pooling of global high-quality resources and make international elements more prominent? According to the meeting, Beijing will actively develop clusters of international institutions, focus on sci-tech innovation, finance, high-end industries, ecological and environmental protection and other fields, and attract international organizations to set up presence here. It will speed up efforts to establish the Global Alliance for Trade in Services and support the World Theater Alliance among others to be located in Beijing.

In terms of attracting foreign investment, Beijing will give full play to its strength of the "two zones" policy and encourage functional platforms such as factor trading, international certification agencies and international rating agencies to settle in Beijing. It will work closely with the "Global 500", leading companies in key fields and hidden champions in industries to introduce a number of foreign-funded projects that are in line with Beijing's functional positioning.

In terms of making full use of the Winter Olympic legacy, Beijing will host international sports events and attract international sports organizations, international winter sports organizations, professional sports leagues and renowned winter sports companies to establish their presence here. Beijing will apply to host the Alpine Skiing World Cup, Bobsleigh and Luge World Cup and other major sports events.

International Environment and Service

Start with Details, Enhance Beijing's Internationality in an All-round Way

On November 26, 2021, the Regulations of Beijing Municipality on Building an International Language Environment was adopted at the 35th Session of the Standing Committee of the 15th Beijing Municipal People's Congress. It is China's first local regulation on language environment, which sets a new benchmark for the legal governance of city-level international language environment.

Starting from the details, Beijing will enhance its internationality in an all-round way, and continuously improve its international environment and services.

In the past year, Beijing's capacity for international education and medical care has increased significantly. Twelve new international schools have been put into use, 14 have been planned and the number of education institutions and projects jointly operated with foreign partners has reached 157. Beijing has advanced the international medical care combination in Chaoyang District and Haidian District, and Sanlitun has been chosen as a pilot area to promote community-level international medical services.

International services have become more accessible. Beijing has initiated a pilot program that enables joint processing of both foreigner's work permit and residence permit, and released a catalogue of overseas professional qualifications that can be recognized in Beijing, with 82 such qualifications included in the first batch. It has hosted the HICOOL Global Entrepreneur Summit and Entrepreneurship Competition, and speeded up efforts to attract overseas entrepreneurial talent. It has focused on the work, life, business creation and other issues of foreigners in Beijing and strived to help them solve all difficulties.

Considerate services can reflect a city's hospitality. Beijing will promote the high-level building of eight international talent communities including Chaoyang Wangjing and Zhongguancun Science City and develop demonstration blocks with distinctive features such as Wangjing Street. It will build work-living integrated space to meet the needs of international talents. It will optimize foreign-related government services and improve entrepreneurship and employment services. It will work to get the pilot program that integrates foreigner's work permit and residence permit into one launched in Beijing and improve the online service experience for foreigners, including helping them start businesses, seek medical treatment, attend school, rent houses, etc.

(Article: Fan Junsheng)