Editor's Note: To accomplish the glorious mission of strengthening Beijing's role as a center for international exchanges entrusted by the CPC Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core, districts across the city have faithfully implemented the overall plan drawn up by the CPC Beijing Municipal Committee in recent years. With their strengths in location and resources, they have made concerted efforts to push ahead with relevant tasks and achieved impressive results.

To celebrate the opening of the 20th CPC National Congress, Beijing Foreign Affairs Office has published a serial report "Highlights of Each District in Building Beijing into a Center for International Exchanges", showcasing the progress and achievements made by each district and how they drew on past success to promote the capital's development in the new era.

Taking the capital's development in the new era as the overarching principle, Beijing Economic-Technological Development Area (BDA) has fully implemented the country's overall strategy of opening up. With a sound industrial ecosystem based on improved service, the BDA has pooled global high-end innovation and industrial resources to expedite its internationalization.

1. Harness strengths to build competitive high-end industry clusters

"We should give full play to the role of international high-end industrial clusters, and promote international-oriented, high-end and differentiated industrial development." According to the top-level design for the BDA laid out in the Plan for Strengthening Beijing's Role as a Center for International Exchanges during the 14th Five-Year Plan Period, the BDA has made itself a magnet for businesses in spearheading pilot programs by leveraging its strengths in commercialization of sci-tech innovation and industrial clusters.

Today, such sci-fi-ish scenes as hailing Robotaxi, unmanned vending vehicles selling food and drink, and even automated trucks running on the Beijing-Taipei Expressway are common in BDA. This is brought by the opportunity of building the world's first network-connected cloud-controlled high-level autonomous driving demonstration zone in Beijing. As the phase-3 construction of Beijing High-level Autonomous Driving Demonstration Zone kicked off in BDA this September, eight types of urban use cases such as automated cabs, unmanned delivery, unmanned retail and micro-circulation shuttle have been launched for collaborative development.

Leveraging the combined strengths of the "two zones" policy, foreign enterprises continue to increase their presence in China. For example, SMC has set up its China headquarters in the BDA and will establish its first overseas R&D center outside Japan. Meanwhile, domestic companies have grown their footprints globally, such as BOE, which plans to invest in the production line of the LTPO Sixth-Generation New Semiconductor Display Device, thus further implementing the strategy of "Screen of Things" in use cases of multiple business forms. After obtaining permission this January, China (Beijing) High-tech Audio-visual Industrial Park has become home to some pilot programs, including the National Broadcasting and Television Network Engineering Technology Research Center and Ultra-HD TV Technology Research and Application Laboratory, aiming to develop the world's top-tier innovation hub of ultra-HD technology and application.

So far, the BDA has attracted over 900 foreign-funded enterprises from more than 40 countries and regions around the world, among which 94 Fortune 500 companies have invested in 138 projects.

2. Enhance environment to build soft power and attract global talent

Relying on high-end industries, the BDA has built more service windows for expanding opening up and created an international environment for innovation and entrepreneurship.

Opening in October 2020, the BDA International Talent Service Center is the first service center in Beijing to handle and issue foreigner's work permits and residence permits simultaneously at a single window, offering one-stop services. Up to now, it has processed relevant documents for over 1,500 foreigners of more than 160 enterprises from 50-plus countries, including the United States, Germany, the United Kingdom, Japan and Korea, among which the number of applications for two permits at the same time accounts for nearly 1/3 of the total of the city.

The BDA has been creating a good living environment for professionals to settle in. Based on the public rental housing in Yichengjingyuan, the BDA has built a high-quality complex to make foreigners feel at home, as well as the city's first new international talent community covering an area of one million square meters. In doing so, the BDA is upgrading the living environment and making it a livable place featuring diversified social occasions, healthy and low-carbon life, intelligent technology, and international high-quality housing.

3. Build platforms to cultivate brands pooling international resources

By staging foreign exchanges and large international events, the BDA further promotes global industrial cooperation.

The World Robot Conference, with the BDA as the permanent venue, has been held for seven consecutive years, and is the top gala in robotics in terms of scale, level and international elements. The 2022 event has recorded over 50,000 spectators and a viewership of 24 million. In addition, the BDA participated in various international competitions or events such as the Winter Olympic Games, China International Fair for Trade in Services (CIFTIS) and China International Import Expo (CIIE). During this year's CIFTIS, the BDA contributed to the signing of 42 projects.

BDA also interacts with embassies and chambers of commerce and helps businesses to engage in the likes of international industrial dialogues, thus accessing high-end foreign affairs channels. This year, the embassies of the United Kingdom, Germany, Serbia, Trinidad and Tobago and organizations such as the Japan-China Economic Association were invited to visit BDA. To open up broader space for more comprehensive and in-depth international cooperation, the BDA also attended events like "Retrofit buildings in an energy and emissions efficient and environmental friendly way in China, and the opportunities for UK companies" organized by the British Embassy, an online introduction of Beijing's "two zones" policy for South Korea by Beijing Investment Promotion Bureau, and the 2022 China-Korea ICT Industrial Cooperation Conference.

Moreover, programs with Yizhuang characteristics that integrate science with culture, such as the development of Beijing into a City of Science Museums, programs of "E-Town Through Eyes of Foreigners" and "BDA in the Eyes of Foreigners company" also inject cultural attraction to the global industrial cooperation. To date, 80 pavilions have been included in the construction plan. Such novel venues for science popularization will bring a tangible and high-end experience of science and technology innovation.

In the future, BDA will further contribute to strengthening Beijing's role as a center for international exchanges by tapping into its advantages as an international high-end industrial cluster and upholding the philosophy of "integrated, high-end and international-oriented" development.

(Photo source: Beijing Daily, BDA)