Beijing CBD shines bright as enterprise hub

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.