International organizations are important platforms for promoting international exchanges and cooperation, playing a significant role in Beijing’s participation in global governance and in serving China’s overall diplomacy. On June 26, a special session on improving Beijing’s role as the center for international exchanges was held as part of a series of press conferences on Beijing’s Implementation of the Guiding Principles of the 20th CPC National Congress. During the press conference, Xiong Jiuling, Director General of the Office of Foreign Affairs Committee of the CPC Beijing Municipal Committee and Foreign Affairs Office of Beijing Municipal Government, announced that, as of June this year, 113 international organizations have set up offices in Beijing, including 32 intergovernmental international organizations and their representative agencies in China. A total of 38 non-governmental international organizations have launched headquarters and 43 opened representative offices. Beijing ranks first nationwide in terms of the number of headquarters and representative offices for all types of international organizations. In comparison to the number of international organizations prior to the establishment of the task force for international organizations in 2019, 28 international organizations were newly added, registering a growth of 33%.

She said that in 2019, a task force for international organizations was established under the Leading Group for Improving Beijing’s Role as the Center for International Exchanges. In April of last year, Beijing formulated and implemented a package of policies to attract international organizations, covering the entire process, from the initial settlement to the ongoing operation of international organizations. In May of this year, China’s first headquarters cluster for international scientific and technological organizations was established at the East Lake International Center in Chaoyang District. It provides workspace, supporting amenities, and conference services to international organizations in the cluster. This is the first organization cluster of its kind. The first group of eight international scientific and technological organizations moved in, including the International Society of Zoological Sciences, the International Society for Digital Earth, the International Hydrogen Fuel Cell Association, the International Coalition of Intelligent Manufacturing, and the International Panel of Mesoscience.

(Reporter: Fan Junsheng)