Beijing issued regulations this year on supporting the establishment and development of foreign-funded R&D centers, identifying 29 foreign-funded enterprises including Intel, AstraZeneca, and Hitachi as the first batch of foreign-funded R&D centers in Beijing. To be specific, about 70 percent of them focus on information technology, medicine and health, artificial intelligence, and other high-end, precision, and sophisticated industries, with a total R&D investment exceeding CNY 2 billion in 2021.
AstraZeneca, a multinational pharmaceutical enterprise, upgraded the former AstraZeneca Beijing to the Northern China headquarters of AstraZeneca and settled in the Beijing Economic-Technological Development Area (BDA). AstraZeneca has built 14 integrated medical solutions including screening, diagnosis, treatment, and home rehabilitation, which have been extended to thousands of hospitals in China. With the establishment of the Beijing International Life Science Innovation Campus, settled enterprises have been provided growth assistance through AstraZeneca's internal R&D, medicine, and marketing. Cooperative negotiations with many enterprises have already commenced. As AstraZeneca's investment and production plans in China continue to ramp up, the establishment of foreign-funded R&D centers will also play a greater role. This includes creating another one or two integrated medical solutions, implementing them into innovative scenarios every year, providing support for domestic enterprises in "Going Global", and helping introduce overseas enterprises.
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In March 2022, Beijing issued the Regulations of Beijing Municipality on Supporting the Establishment and Development of Foreign-funded R&D Centers (the Regulations), which mentioned that the term "foreign-funded R&D center" refers to those invested in whole or in part by foreign investors whose main business is abroad. The institution shall be established in China in accordance with Chinese law and whose business scope includes R&D and experimental development (including intermediate experiments serving R&D activities) in the natural sciences and their related scientific and technological fields, including R&D innovation centers and open innovation platforms. In recent years, China has been encouraging and facilitating foreign investment, and assisting foreign businesses to invest and set up R&D centers in China is one of the vital measures.