Understand the latest policies, share enterprises' experience, plan future development. Recently, a themed salon co-hosted by 2021 Beijing "Two Zones," GaWC and international high-end industrial service enterprises was successfully held in Beijing.
Heads of international business associations and representatives from multinational companies and leading enterprises from legal services, financial services, science and technology, intellectual property services and other high-end service industries visited the International Business Service Area, the most concentrated business service area in Beijing, to learn about the preferential policies of the free-trade zone (FTZ) on innovation.
In addition to the field visit, around 100 entrepreneurs from 13 countries and regions also joined the global video conference to discuss the new opportunities for Beijing in the context of the development of the "Two Zones".
Initiatives for Global Enterprises to Develop with Beijing
At CBD Investment Service Center and the One-Stop Human Resources Service Center, the guests learned about the innovative measures of the FTZ on the spot and gained a deeper understanding of the butler service provided to foreign enterprises and talents as well as the advantages of Beijing's business environment.
According to Yang Jinbai, vice mayor of Beijing and director of Beijing's "Two Zones" leading group office, through the "Two Zones," Beijing has shown China's firm determination to fully open up to the world, at a time when economic globalization is confronted with complex challenges. In the short time span of one year, 80% of the "Two Zones" tasks approved by the State Council have been completed. The "Two Zones" will open its "industries, parks and resources" to set up a "Beijing Model" of reform and opening-up from three perspectives, namely policies, projects and mechanisms.
He said that the high-end service industry has played a leading role in the high-quality development of Beijing and we saw a good momentum of enterprises gathering and developing. Since the development of the "Two Zones" started last year, a number of high-quality enterprises and institutions in finance, science and technology services and intellectual property rights have rushed to settle in Beijing. Yang sincerely invited global high-end service enterprises to come to Beijing to share the policy dividends of the "Two Zones" and become witnesses, participants and beneficiaries of the "Two Zones."
According to Yan Ligang, director general of the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Commerce and deputy director of Beijing's "Two Zones" leading group office, the exploration and pilot program of Beijing's "Two Zones" not only smoothed the way for enterprises to grow and develop in Beijing but also provided foreign enterprises that haven't settled in Beijing with opportunities to expand the Chinese market. Beijing will also play an active role in building an open system for the service industry which complies with internationally accepted rules and benchmarks against the service competitiveness of global cities. The capital city will continue to attract the attention of global high-end service enterprises with its exceptional edges in terms of policies, markets and business environment and encourage international organizations, industry associations and leading enterprises from the professional service field to settle in Beijing and foster cooperation. Yan encouraged global enterprises to pay attention to Beijing, come to Beijing, and invest in Beijing so as to grow with Beijing.
As the host of the salon, Cui Xiaohao, executive deputy mayor of Chaoyang district, said that Chaoyang is the main district for international exchanges and economic development of Beijing. It is also one of the most attractive global investment hubs in China. Chaoyang boasts an advanced industrial structure and excellent business environment, where international resources are gathered and industry space is broad. In order to better serve enterprises with foreign investment, the Chaoyang government has set up four goals, namely full service, full coverage research, closed-loop problem resolution and full-cycle management. In this way, Chaoyang will advance investment liberalization and facilitation policies so as to encourage more domestic and international enterprises to invest here and seek common development.
Beijing Constantly Improves its Connectivity
The professional development of producer services and its extension to the high-end of the value chain have become important indicators for the overall competitiveness of world cities. According to the latest world cities rankings released by GaWC in August 2020, Beijing, Hong Kong and Shanghai ranked top three among cities in China. More and more Chinese cities came to the list and their rankings are rising by leaps and bounds.
In the online global guests sharing session, Ben Derudder, GaWC Associate Director and professor from the Catholic University of Leuven in Belgium shared his latest research results. He believed that as more and more China's and Asian-Pacific cities are on the GaWC ranking, the world city layout has shifted towards the Asia-Pacific region. Among those cities, Beijing has the fastest growth and best momentum. In terms of connectivity to the world, Beijing has continued to grow since it ranked top 6 in the global GaWC ranking in 2020 and its connectivity is on a continuous upward trajectory. Derudder suggested that in the future Beijing can continue to strengthen the bonds with other main cities in the world, especially in the financial and other fields, and promote the further development of other high-end service industries in parallel.
"Two Zones" Smooths Way for Enterprises
What impressed the entrepreneurs most in the salon was the changes that the "Two Zones" brought about. According to Xia Qiong, enterprise representative of the financial service field and legal representative of the Credit Suisse Group (China) Ltd., a series of new policies, measures and services not only smoothed the way for enterprises and saved their time and costs but also impressed them with the improvement of the business environment in Beijing and created a sense of urgency to take full advantage of the policies and expand their business.
Lu Jinhua, senior partner of China Sinda Intellectual Property Ltd., summarized the FTZ services as three "ones", namely "one-stop," "one-window" and "one-on-one" services. With the efficient and professional services provided by the government, enterprises save a lot of time on many complicated registration procedures.
The offline "Two Zones" promotion conference was held in Hong Kong University Beijing Center. According to the person in charge, in line with the goal of "Grounded in Hong Kong, Cooperate with Beijing, Embrace the World", the center will give full play to its advantages and provide an even more efficient and convenient interacting platform for the all-round cooperation and exchanges between Beijing and Hong Kong.
(Reporter: Ma Jing)
