Beijing eyes more foreign investment

Beijing will continue to enhance its business environment to attract investment by introducing a series of foreigner-friendly measures and strengthen international exchanges, amid its comprehensive efforts to promote high-quality development.

Yin Yong, mayor of Beijing, made the statement at a news conference held by the State Council Information Office on Tuesday morning.

"We know that creating a favorable business environment is the greatest support for enterprises," he said. "Beijing has taken various measures and listened to the opinions and suggestions from enterprises."

For instance, during the past weekend, the city's senior officials visited companies such as PricewaterhouseCoopers, Meituan and Alibaba in Beijing to better know their needs.

On Thursday, Beijing will hold an international meeting at which the mayor will engage in face-to-face discussions with leaders of over a dozen internationally renowned multinational companies, listening to their insights on Beijing's business environment.

"We deeply understand that the business environment can always be improved, and there is no 'best', only 'better'," Yin said.

According to the city government, in recent years, Beijing has implemented over 1,200 reform measures to improve the business environment, reducing procedures by over 60 percent.

"In the next step, we will focus on enhancing the sense of satisfaction for enterprises, striving to build the 'Beijing Service' brand for the business sector," he added.

Beijing's efforts have won support from many big brands and companies.

Zhou Xing from PricewaterhouseCoopers said that since its first permanent representative office was set up in Beijing in 1981, it has expanded investments in the capital to now have more than 5,500 employees in four offices, according to Beijing Daily.

"We look forward to more enterprises, entrepreneurs and investors coming to China, to Beijing, to truly experience the current multidimensional development," Zhou said, adding that the company will continue to play its role as a bridge, promoting the convergence of various domestic and international standards and assisting in promoting the sustainable development of Beijing.

Furthermore, Xia Linmao, the city's executive vice-mayor, said at the news conference that Beijing will make greater efforts to address the concerns of foreign friends.

For instance, in payment methods, Beijing will focus on enhancing the convenience of the use of cash, foreign bank cards and electronic payments, he said.

Also, in areas with many foreign residents such as Chaoyang district and the sub city-center in Tongzhou district, efforts will be made to accelerate the construction of international schools and hospitals.

"Additionally, the process for handling mobile phone cards both online and offline will be further improved for foreigners," he added.

At both Beijing Capital International Airport and Daxing International Airport, the authorities have established service centers for overseas visitors' payments, and plan to expand the construction of the service centers to enable visitors to enjoy more integrated services such as tourism, transportation and telecommunications upon their arrival.

In another development, Yu Yingjie, Party secretary of the Beijing Municipal Education Commission, introduced a coming national-level event — the 2024 Zhongguancun Forum, which will be held for the first time at its newly constructed permanent venue from April 25 to 29.

"UNESCO will participate as a supporting unit at the forum for the first time", Yu said. "The forum will be even more internationalized, with more fruitful results."

So far, 28 events have been organized at the forum, focusing on widely discussed topics such as large-scale model applications, cell and gene therapy, and quantum computing.