On the evening of March 19, Yin Li, Secretary of the CPC Beijing Municipal Committee, and Yin Yong, Deputy Secretary of the CPC Beijing Municipal Committee and Mayor of Beijing, met with business advisors who came to Beijing to attend the 17th Meeting of International Business Leaders Advisory Council for the Mayor of Beijing (IBLAC).

Yin Li welcomed the advisors and expressed appreciation for their continued support for Beijing’s development. He noted that Beijing serves as the national political center, cultural center, center for international exchanges, and center for scientific discovery and technological innovation. The city boasts abundant educational, technological, and talent resources, vibrant emerging industries, a solid modern services sector, and international connectivity. Since its establishment in 1999, IBLAC has played an important role in pooling global expertise and enabling international enterprises to share in Beijing’s development opportunities over the past 28 years. During the 15th Five-Year Plan period, Beijing will strive to take the lead in basically realizing socialist modernization. Based on its position as the “four centers”, Beijing will deepen the integrated development of education, technology, and talent; foster emerging and future-oriented industries; accelerate the commercialization of scientific and technological achievements; and better fit into the global innovation ecosystem. The city will also develop the digital and green economies, strengthen standard setting and intellectual property protection, and cultivate new quality productive forces. Efforts will be made to improve the quality of growth and appropriately increase output, boost domestic demand and consumption, advance urban renewal, promote urban–rural integration, and unlock the potential of a super-large city. Beijing will further expand high-standard opening up and continue to build a market-oriented, law-based, convenient, and internationalized business environment. These efforts will not only create broad development space for Chinese enterprises but also offer significant investment opportunities for foreign companies.

Yin Li expressed hope for the advisors to work with Beijing to strengthen cooperation in trade in services and key areas of investment, guiding financial capital toward early-stage, small-scale, long-term, and hardcore technology investments to create new growth drivers for collaboration. He also called for deeper cooperation in technological innovation, encouraging active participation in the development of the Beijing (Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei Region) International Center for Science and Technology Innovation, more R&D investment in areas such as artificial intelligence and the digital economy, the establishment of high-level R&D centers, and stronger collaboration with research institutions and technology enterprises to generate more innovation outcomes. In addition, he emphasized advancing industrial cooperation in key sectors such as advanced manufacturing, biomedicine, green and low-carbon development, and modern services to jointly promote high-quality industrial growth. As leaders of the global business community, the advisors were encouraged to contribute insights to Beijing’s modernization efforts and leverage their international influence to attract more partners to invest and develop in the city. The Beijing municipal government, he added, will continue to foster a world-class business environment and provide strong support for enterprises operating in Beijing.

Advisors including Estelle Brachlianoff, CEO of Veolia, delivered remarks. They spoke highly of Beijing’s achievements and expressed readiness to expand cooperation with the city in areas such as technological innovation, biomedicine, green and low-carbon development, financial services, and infrastructure construction. They also indicated their intention to encourage more enterprises to invest and establish operations in Beijing, contributing to the city’s higher-quality and more sustainable development during the 15th Five-Year Plan period and turning shared visions into reality.

Tang Wenhong, Vice Mayor of Beijing, and Zeng Jin, Secretary General of the People’s Government of Beijing Municipality, also attended the meeting.