As Beijing’s “two zones” development upgraded to its phase 2.0, in accordance with the Work Plan for Supporting Beijing in Deepening the Development of the Integrated National Demonstration Zone for Opening up the Services Sector issued by the State Council last November, nearly 130 of the 175 tasks (over 70%) outlined in the Work Plan have been commenced to date. Since the launch of the “two zones” initiative, nearly 30,000 projects have been registered, with almost 20,000 of them already implemented, involving a total amount of nearly 4 trillion yuan.
Yesterday, Beijing Youth Daily reporters learned from a press conference on the “two zones” development that a new batch of landmark and influential projects have been implemented this year. These include the operation of Mastercard Netsunion, a China-based legal entity of the world’s second-largest credit card issuer; the settling of the China headquarters of Steinbeis, a world-renowned technology transfer company; and the establishment of Lilly China Medical Innovation Center. From January to October this year, a total of 8,394 new projects were added to the reserve bank for investment attraction projects of the “two zones”. Notably, 5,614 projects have been launched, with an estimated investment of 864.8 billion yuan.
With the steady advancement of institutional opening up under the “two zones” initiative, Beijing has pioneered a series of measures to expand opening up, yielding a new batch of institutional innovation achievements. For example, Beijing has taken the lead in China by launching pilot programs to expand opening up in sectors such as value-added telecom services and healthcare. Foreign investors are allowed to operate wholly-owned internet data centers and other value-added telecom services, as well as establish wholly foreign-owned hospitals throughout Beijing. Foreign-funded enterprises are permitted to engage in the development and application of human stem cells, and gene diagnostics and therapeutic technologies within the China (Beijing) Pilot Free Trade Zone, with the country’s first foreign-invested human gene diagnostics and therapeutic technology company established in the E-Town Cluster. Beijing has established a green channel for the approval of temporary import of medical devices urgently needed for clinical use. Based on the public’s medication needs, the city has streamlined the work process and developed a rapid review and approval model with Beijing’s characteristics.
Zhu Jing, Deputy Director of Statistics and Information Division of Beijing Municipal Commerce Bureau, introduced the significant breakthroughs made in the reform to facilitate cross-border data flows in Beijing. The city released the nation’s first scenario-based and field-level negative list for outbound data flow of companies in the pilot free trade zone, enabling the first batch of enterprises to complete the negative list filing. In addition, Beijing rolled out a series of measures to facilitate cross-border data flows, and established the Beijing Municipal Cross-Border Data Service Center and four service stations, supporting outbound data flows in nearly 100 complex scenarios across 20 industries. The city has put into place a “green channel” service mechanism, covering 117 enterprises across five industries, with the application and approval time for enterprises slashed by approximately 50%. Currently, a total of 52 enterprises in the city have passed the national security assessments for data export, and 200 enterprises have successfully filed standard contracts for the export of personal data. Beijing ranks among the highest in the country for the diversity and approval rate of outbound data.
According to statistics, from January to October this year, Beijing saw a year-on-year increase of 13.3% in the number of newly established foreign-funded enterprises, 1.5 percentage points higher than the national average. Zhu said, “The growth rate of newly established foreign-funded enterprises in the city has outpaced the national average for several consecutive months, reflecting strong foreign recognition of Beijing’s favorable business environment and investment opportunities arising from greater openness. It also demonstrates the confidence and enthusiasm of foreign-funded companies in expanding their presence in Beijing.”
In addition, customs data shows that in the first 10 months, the import and export volume in Beijing reached 2.98 trillion yuan, of which imports totaled 2.48 trillion yuan and exports amounted to 505.17 billion yuan, marking the second highest export value for the same period in history. The import and export values of the Beijing Tianzhu Comprehensive Bonded Zone and Beijing Economic-Technological Development Area exceeded 100 billion yuan, fully demonstrating the significant role of open platforms.
