[Photo via tuchong.com]

On September 7, Blue Book of Beijing: Annual Report on the Center of International Exchange of Beijing (2021-2022) was released. According to the book, Beijing, the first dual Olympic city, has become a focus of world attention for hosting Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics.

Beijing features prominently in several authoritative rankings of world cities and its comprehensive strength is observed worldwide. In the Global Power City Index, Beijing ranks third in terms of economic performance, 22.6 points ahead of Tokyo (Japan); Beijing ranks sixth among 156 cities assessed in Kearney's 2021 Global Cities Index; and the city ranks first in the world for the fourth year in a row in the Nature Index 2021 Science Cities, which assesses the world's scientific research cities.

As a significant symbol of the new economic form, the added value of Beijing's digital economy amounted to CNY 1.63 trillion in 2021, which accounted for 40.4 percent of GRP.

Although Beijing's total economic output continued to resume growth in 2021, it still faced situations such as unsatisfactory growth in residents' consumption and a relatively slow recovery in investment growth.

In terms of building Beijing into an International Center for Science and Technology Innovation, Beijing's R&D investment intensity and the amount of invention patents held by 10,000 people ranked first in China last year. In addition, Beijing's patents in the realm of artificial intelligence also ranked first in China. Among China's technological achievements that lead the world, Beijing occupies more than half throughout the country with its digital innovation capabilities continuously rising in strength.

(Source: Beijing Daily)