Ever since the construction of the "two zones" commenced, Beijing has been striving to blaze new trails for further opening up with a series of policies and institutional innovations. The efforts have attracted additional new business types to gather and develop in the area, thus generating new momentum towards the construction of an international center for scientific innovation and consumption.

Service Innovation: New Business Patterns Benefiting People’s Livelihood

After kicking off the construction of the "two zones", Beijing has been approved as the only pilot city in the country for cross-border e-commerce of pharmaceutical products. Kyuan Trade, a large pharmaceutical circulation enterprise, has set up a special area for cross-border pharmaceutical e-commerce storage. Popular OTC drugs for tourists such as Japanese painkillers and Singaporean medicated oil will be labeled with the Tianzhu Free Trade Zone Traceability Code when being put into storage. After consumers confirm online orders for purchase, corresponding pharmaceutical products will be quickly sorted and sent out, providing the public with a convenient purchasing experience.

During the construction of the "two zones", a variety of new business patterns have been launched, giving people a real sense of gains. After years' pilot of further opening up the services sector, Beijing has developed more than 100 national pioneering policies and innovative institutional arrangements on the opening-up of the service industry and facilitation of trade in services. The policy-led environment for the development of the service sector continues to improve. With the building of the "two zones", Beijing’s services industry will generate additional new business patterns and continue to guide the opening up of China’s service industry as a whole.

Additional Support: Private Sector in the Aerospace Industry

The construction of the "two zones" will fuel private enterprises to pursue their dreams in the aerospace industry. A number of policies and measures are being implemented to support the development of the satellite Internet industry. In view of common issues for the private sector investment in aerospace, such as high risk, large investment, and long period for investment returns, Beijing plans to rely on municipal-level funds for high-end, precision and sophisticated industries and other policy funds to support social institutions and cooperate with them in setting up sub-funds in the satellite network and commercial space field. And equity investments will be made through the sub-funds in eligible projects. In addition, enterprises in Beijing legally engaged in commercial rockets, satellite R&D, as well as their production or launching and operation will be given a subsidy of no more than 50 percent for the commercial space launch insurance. Beijing will also try to open and share facilities such as factory buildings for the assembly, integration, and testing of rockets and satellites. These facilities will allow space enterprises to explore new models for coordinated development.

Frontier Breakthrough: Rise of New Benchmark in Digital Economy

This January, Microchip and other 26 units jointly released the “ChainMaker” software and hardware technology system in Beijing, the first independent controllable blockchain software and hardware technology system in China. The “ChainMaker” will not only be applied in the field of food traceability, but also in more areas such as supply chain finance, carbon trading, and other fields. In the future, it will be integrated and subsequently innovated with digital RMB, effectively promoting the construction of China’s digital infrastructure and promoting the high-quality development of the digital economy.

In the construction of the "two zones", Beijing will accelerate the planning for all-area application scenarios, deploy a general artificial intelligence infrastructure support platform, and construct a ubiquitous “digital city”. During the period of the 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-2025), the municipality will build itself into a global benchmark city for the digital economy and strive for an average annual growth of approximately 7.5 percent in the added value of the digital economy.

Experts: Uniquely Positioned to Embrace Emergence of New Business Patterns Driven by Sci-tech Innovation

"Along with the construction of the 'two zones', a number of new business patterns have emerged in Beijing, acting as a prime demonstration case and providing a leading example for the whole country," said Yu Ying, KPMG partner on Chinese Government Consulting Service. She compared Beijing's plan with those for other pilot free trade zones, and pointed out that Beijing highlights the role of institutional innovation to promote technological innovation, and it encourages the use of technological innovation to promote the emergence of new business patterns. Beijing will utilize the agglomeration effect of scientific research institutes, scientific and technological enterprises, and scientific and technological leading talents to their full effect. Also a convenient and free development environment will be created to accelerate the transformation of scientific and technological achievements into real productive forces, continuously create new economic increments, raise the level of the industrial chains for high-end, precision and sophisticated industries, pave a path and accumulate experience in order to accelerate the formation of a new development pattern for the country.

(Note: Content source is from Beijing Daily.)