Beijing Accelerates to Lead the Nation in Expanding Service Industry Opening-Up

China News Beijing, March 9 — According to the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Commerce on the 9th, as the only national comprehensive demonstration zone for expanding the opening of the service industry, Beijing closely aligns with the city’s strategic positioning, orderly expands the openness of the service sector, and has implemented over 70 breakthrough policies nationwide. More than 80 innovative achievements have been replicated and promoted nationwide, and over 150 innovative practices are being promoted across the city. In each evaluation of national pilot demonstrations for expanding the service industry, Beijing has ranked first, contributing to the construction of a high-standard service industry opening system with the “Beijing Practice.”

Beijing continues to relax market access, promoting mutual benefit and sharing in services. Focusing on modern service industries such as technology, digital economy, culture, and finance, the city has implemented nearly 300 pilot measures approved by the State Council in two rounds, balancing domestic and foreign investment, access and operation, and attracting investment and talent. It was among the first in the country to pilot expanded opening in fields like value-added telecommunications and healthcare, establishing the nation’s first foreign-invested human genetic diagnosis and treatment technology enterprise. Over 60 foreign-invested companies have participated in these pilots. The new opening measures have brought new investment opportunities. By 2025, Beijing will have established over 2,400 new foreign-invested enterprises, reaching a historic high. The investment structure has been further optimized, with companies like Prudential Asset Management and BNP Paribas Cardif Insurance approved to operate, AstraZeneca’s global strategic R&D center officially launched, and Medtronic’s first digital medical innovation base in China established. Beijing is increasingly becoming a stage for openness, sharing, innovation, and resonance.

Beijing deepens reforms in key areas to improve the efficiency of factor coordination. It has pioneered the implementation of the WTO Electronic Commerce Agreement, strengthened cooperation with DEPA (Digital Economy Partnership Agreement) members, and launched a series of pioneering practices, including the world’s first interoperable digital collection cooperation project. The city released China’s first comprehensive reform document to facilitate cross-border data flow, introduced the first negative list for data export in scenario-based free trade pilot zones, and promoted the application of this list across the entire city. It has broken through longstanding issues in property registration for non-monetary trust assets like real estate and equity, solving long-standing property rights confirmation problems. Beijing also became the first in the country to publish an international professional qualification recognition catalog, which continues to be upgraded. These institutional innovations effectively stimulate market vitality. By 2025, Beijing’s service exports are expected to grow by 11%, reaching a record high.

Beijing promotes the quality and upgrading of key parks to create diverse open hubs. It has built a multi-faceted open platform combining the Free Trade Pilot Zone, key service industry expansion parks, and comprehensive bonded zones. The city has launched 21 key parks (or clusters), implementing special actions to develop and upgrade these parks and develop new productive forces suited to local conditions. Beijing Financial Street aims to become a highland for asset management, with asset management institutions in the district managing about half of the city’s total and one-eighth of the national total. Lize Financial Business District has introduced landmark projects such as Anruijiaer Insurance Brokerage (Beijing) Co., Ltd. and the China Payment and Settlement Association, with over 60% of enterprises in finance and technology sectors. The layout of comprehensive bonded zones has been further improved. After the Zhongguancun Comprehensive Bonded Zone, the country’s first innovation-focused zone, began operations in 2024, the Yizhuang Comprehensive Bonded Zone, themed on new productive forces, will start operations at the end of 2025. Beijing has formed a layout combining airport-type and industrial-type bonded zones to better serve high-quality development needs.

A relevant person from the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Commerce stated that next, Beijing will actively connect with international high-standard trade and economic rules, promote the release of the 3.0 version of the comprehensive demonstration zone for expanding the service industry, support the differentiated development of bonded zones, implement key park opening enhancement actions, and improve the level of institutional opening, systemic reform effectiveness, and the quality of an open economy. This will inject new momentum for higher-level opening and deeper reforms. (End)

(Editor: Wen Jing)

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