Business Development of Beijing

Information

Beijing boasts of a great number of state-level information institutions and news media, such as Xinhua News Agency, People's Daily, CCTV, People's Broadcasting Station of China, State Statistics Bureau, and State Information Center. Large quantities of information is produced and gathered in Beijing and then spreads to all parts of the country and the world. The city, as a matter of fact, serves as the largest center of information exchange and dissemination.

Market & Circulation

In 1999, there were 240,000 business outlets of various types throughout the city. The city's total retail sales volume for consumer goods came to 131.33 billion yuan that year. The railway system handled 41.107 million tons cargo and 53.22 million travels.

Human Resources Beijing is the home to more than 400 R&D institutes, outnumbering those in any other city. Some 1.15 million professionals specializing in various fields work there, accounting for 19% of the nation's total. There are 64 schools of higher learning with 230,000 students, 118 secondary vocational schools with 104,135 students, 148 secondary technical schools with 48,158 students, and 174 senior middle vocational middle schools with 108,308 students.

Various schools of all levels for adult education number 963, including 145 adult schools of higher learning and 818 adult schools of secondary level. Some 210,800 adults are receiving full-time education.

Finance

Most of China's national financial institutions are based in Beijing, and so are the headquarters of China's Central Bank and state-owned policy- related banks and commercial banks, as well as of many non-banking financial institutions like insurance companies, trust & investment companies, finance houses and leasing companies. All the country's financial policies are formulated in Beijing. Besides, Beijing is where most banking transactions are conducted. Through five decades of hard work, Beijing has established a relatively advanced urban financial system that serves as the largest sector in Beijing's tertiary industry. In 1999, there were nearly 2000 banking service outlets, and the volume of bank deposits handled that year was 55 times as great as 20 years ago. At present, Beijing boasts over 30 listed companies, nearly a hundred securities brokerages and more than 1 million investors. For those advantages it enjoys, Beijing has been designated to experiment with the opening of China's financial sector to international capital.

Science & Technology Resources

Since the founding of new China, Beijing has made a steady progress in science and technology development. It has not only established a R&D network complete with supporting systems but also scored a range of achievements rated as close to the best world standards.

Beijing serves as the national center for research not only of natural sciences but also philosophy and social sciences. Thanks to work over the past decades, Beijing has developed itself into a most important pool of science and technology resources, be they may material, intellectual or human. To be more specific, the city has excelled in terms of the number of research institutions, the number of patented research results, and availability of information, fund input and foreign exchanges. At present, there are 53 state-level key laboratories in Beijing, accounting for 34.2% of its kind in China.

32 engineering technology research centers, accounting for 39% of the national total. The third China Beijing International Week for High- tech Industries was held in Beijing May 8-12, 2000 More than 500 multinationals, high-tech companies, high-tech parks and scientific research institutes took part in the exhibition that offered a space of 28,000 square meters for display of their products. During the week, contracts valued at US$4.46 billion were signed on high-tech projects.

Services

There are many office towers and exhibition halls in Beijing, which are all up to international standards.The city also has 239 star-grade hotels, including five-star facilities such as the Jing Guang Center, International Trade Center, JianGuo Hotel, Great Wall Hotel. Beijing Exhibition Hall and Beijing International Exhibition Center. Hundreds of world- renowned companies like Motorola, HP, Dow Jones and Samsung have set up their offices in office towers at the city's Central Business District. Beijing also boasts more than 4,000 companies specializing in services including enterprise registration consulting, information provision, provision of consulting for business operations, assets appraisal, notarization services, as well as services related to patents, trade marks, intellectual property, public relations, ads and other marketing programs.

There are also some organizations offering business-related professional services such as law offices and accountant offices.