The National Stadium, or the Bird's Nest, is a symbolic legacy from the Beijing 2008 Olympics. Its renovations in preparation for the Beijing 2022's opening and closing ceremonies will be finished by this month. [PHOTO BY LIN ZHONGSHAN/FOR CHINA DAILY]
Area succeeds in drawing new residents during outbreak, offering superior services and cultured environment, Hu Yuyan reports.
Dubbed "a diamond studded on the Third Ring Road", Beijing's central business district has evolved over a few decades from an industrial base rolling out refrigerators and motor vehicles into a business hub filled with futuristic buildings and corporate headquarters.
Predominantly engaged in finance, commerce and the culture and media business, companies based in the CBD paid more than 40 billion yuan ($5.85 billion) in taxes in the first four months of this year, according to its administrative committee.
According to a report published on July 20 by Beijing Daily, the CBD was home to 238 Fortune 500 companies, more than 10,000 foreign-funded enterprises, and the regional headquarters of 89 multinational corporations.
"After 20 years of rapid development, Beijing's CBD－now housing more than 70 percent of the city's Grade A+ office space, 90 percent of its international financial organizations and 50 percent of its regional headquarters of multinationals－epitomizes the capital's openness and serves as an important platform for international exchange," said Lin Keqing, former executive vice-mayor of Beijing, at the 2019 Beijing CBD Forum, according to news portal Chinanews.
In the 2020 ranking of the attractiveness of global business districts commissioned by the Global Business Districts Innovation Club and published by EY and the Urban Land Institute, Beijing's CBD ranks seventh.
Attracting Businesses
The CBD is committed to attracting businesses and investment. It continued to do so during the COVID-19 outbreak by turning to online communication and cloud-based services.
In the first quarter of 2020, 37 companies with a registered capital exceeding 100 million yuan and 60 foreign-invested companies set up shop in the CBD, according to Beijing Daily.
Six enterprises, including Volvo Financial Services and braking system manufacturer Knorr-Bremse, located their regional headquarters in the CBD during this time.
"Beijing's CBD is complete in terms of policy support and industrial ecosystem," Beijing Daily quoted an executive at Knorr-Bremse China as saying.
"We saw from the CBD's COVID-19 response that it is very effective in handling emergencies, which reassures the people who work and live here."
During the outbreak, the CBD's administrative committee talked with more than 1,000 key enterprises in its jurisdiction separately to learn about their needs and how they were doing in terms of work resumption, Beijing Daily reported.
The committee also helped companies access protective gear such as masks and assisted some of ce buildings in getting high-precision infrared thermal imagers to ensure the speed and accuracy of temperature measurement.
A dazzling view of Wangjing Soho, a commercial complex in Beijing's Chaoyang district. [PHOTO BY YANG SHUO/FOR CHINA DAILY]
Serving Businesses
To provide better services to businesses, the CBD has created an alliance of office building operators and is offering training sessions for building managers, according to the CBD's administrative committee.
The CBD also provides tailor-made service packages to more than 40 key enterprises such as Toyota China and Shell China. These packages include customized solutions to specific problems and "green channel" services.
The CBD's administrative committee also visits companies on a regular basis to learn about their needs. In 2019, the committee toured more than 800 companies.
"Since locating our operations in the CBD, we have been able to feel an improvement," an executive of Canon China told Beijing Daily.
"In addition to the helpful service packages and green channel services, those regular visits have solved many practical problems for us and have greatly supported our growth," the executive said.
An important aspect of serving companies is serving their people. In collaboration with education consultancies, such as the Penn Wharton China Center and Yale Center Beijing, the CBD regularly holds lectures and talks for CBD-based professionals to help them stay on top of the latest developments in the economy and technology.
The CBD's administrative committee is also working to increase workers' access to public rental housing and joint-ownership homes to shorten their commute.
The Beijing government has invested heavily in improving the water quality of local rivers. [PHOTO BY WANG XICHENG/FOR CHINA DAILY]
More Than Work
To avoid becoming a ghost town after work hours, Beijing's CBD needs to offer more than office buildings. It should also provide residential spaces, leisure facilities and a pleasant natural environment, according to an official with the local administrative committee.
Every year, the CBD hosts an array of cultural and sports events such as sculpture exhibitions, drama club performances and a corporate soccer tournament to make the area more fun, according to Beijing Daily.
In June, the CBD launched a series of events themed "Urban Life with Art", which included virtual gallery tours, livestreams of artists painting murals and an origami exhibition to increase public awareness of wildlife protection.
In May 2019, the CBD opened a city forest park to create a more sustainable urban environment and also to provide a convenient getaway for people working and living in the area.
Going forward, the CBD seeks to put itself on a par with the best business districts around, including the City of London, Financial District in New York and Marunouchi in Tokyo.
To make this happen, the CBD formulated an action plan last year for turning itself into a space for "multidimensional international exchanges" over three years.
Contact the writer at huyuyan@chinadaily.com.cn
AT A GLANCE
Location: district in south-central Beijing
Area: 470.8 sq km
Permanent population:
3.47 million in 2019
GDP: 650 billion yuan in 2019
Internationalization: The district is home to almost all the foreign embassies in China; 80 percent of international organizations and foreign chambers of commerce; and more than 70 percent of overseas investment companies and multinationals' regional headquarters in Beijing.
