In 2024, the number of newly established foreign-funded enterprises in Beijing rose by 16.4 percent year-on-year, 6.5 percentage points higher than the national growth rate. The "Two Zones (the Integrated National Demonstration Zone for Opening up the Services Sector and the China (Beijing) Pilot Free Trade Zone)" initiative saw an addition of 7,187 new projects.

Institutional Opening-Up Steadily Expands

Beijing has introduced a series of measures to further expand openness, including the establishment of the China's first pilot area for rare disease drug supply, and launch of first batch of pilot programs for wider opening up of value-added telecommunications and medical sectors. It also introduced the first scenario-based, field-level negative list for outbound data in free trade zones in China.

Flagship Projects Make Debut One After Another

A new batch of flagship projects have landed in Beijing, including Deloitte Academy, the architectural design of which has won three international awards. Eight renowned international pharmaceutical companies, including Eli Lilly and Pfizer, have also established their new R&D or innovation institutions in Beijing. The world-renowned technology transfer institution, Steinbeis China, has chosen to site its headquarters in Beijing. In 2024, the "Two Zones" library has cumulatively registered 9,945 projects, including 7,187 newly added ones, with an estimated investment of CNY 1,022.55 billion.

Foreign-Funded Enterprises Expand Business Footprints

With the optimization of the foreign investment environment, a number of foreign-funded enterprises have determined to base in Beijing, actively expanding their investments and business operations. For instance, Standard Chartered Securities (China) Limited[1] , China's first approved wholly foreign-owned securities firm, began operations, to support the high-level opening of China's capital market. China's second joint venture bank card clearing institution, Mastercard NetsUnion Information Technology (Beijing) Co., Ltd., has been opened for services, offering new bank card products. In 2024, the actually utilized foreign capital in Beijing's pilot free trade zone accounted for 39.9 percent of the total, representing an increase of 20.6 percentage points compared to the same period last year.

In 2025, Beijing will deepen the "Two Zones"-related comprehensive reform, and formulate version 3.0 Plan for the Comprehensive Demonstration Zone for Expanded Opening up of Service Sectors, so as to further advance high-level opening-up.

(Source: Beijing Daily)