Beijing's Central Business District (CBD) has successfully drawn more than ten thousand foreign-invested enterprises to establish operations, accounting for over 30% of the city's total foreign enterprises.
This information was disclosed at a press conference focused on Chaoyang District's strategy of using openness to lead high-quality economic development. The district plans to further accelerate efforts to attract and foster the agglomeration of international organizations. This includes building the nation's first full-cycle, full-chain, one-stop physical service platform tailored for international organizations, enabling them to "handle all matters through one door."
Looking ahead, Chaoyang District intends to create benchmark scenarios such as robot restaurants, robot hotels, and robot patrol teams. It also plans to develop specialized industrial clusters, including an AI SPACE industrial park and the Chaoyang Intelligent Robot Innovation and Application Base.
Currently, the Beijing CBD hosts 125 regional headquarters of multinational corporations, representing nearly half of the city's total, highlighting its prominent role as a headquarters economy hub. Its financial openness advantage continues to expand, with nearly 1,200 licensed financial institutions, including close to 300 foreign-funded licensed financial institutions, which account for nearly 40% of the city's total.
Regarding international consumption, the CBD's trillion-yuan-level commercial district maintains robust development, with annual card-based consumption exceeding 1.2 trillion yuan for three consecutive years, placing its comprehensive consumption vitality among the nation's leaders. Since the beginning of this year, the area has welcomed over 20 flagship stores of international and domestic trendy brands, with an annual target of adding more than 40 new high-quality flagship stores.
International service infrastructure within the commercial district is also being continuously enhanced. There are now over 200 tax-refund shops for overseas visitors, making up one-eighth of the city's total and over half of Chaoyang District's total. China World Mall has introduced the city's first "immediate tax refund upon purchase" service for overseas visitors. Major shopping centers comprehensively cover foreign payment card processing, foreign currency exchange, and other international services.
Concurrently, the district has established the city's first CBD temporary pedestrian street and regularly hosts special events like coffee festivals, concerts, and sports seasons. The renewal and upgrade of commercial spaces are progressing steadily, fostering a stronger integration of commerce, culture, tourism, and sports.
In the future, the Beijing CBD will further improve its diversified commercial dispute resolution system, strengthen its pool of international professional mediators, and attract more arbitration institutions and commercial mediation organizations. It will integrate various professional resources such as legal, audit, and intellectual property services to establish a regular supply-demand matching platform, precisely meeting the commercial service needs of enterprises.
Furthermore, the district will accelerate the development of the CBD Comprehensive Service Center, integrating government affairs handling and foreign-related legal services to create a "one-stop" legal and commercial service platform.
Since the launch of the "Two Zones" initiative, Chaoyang District has implemented over 150 pioneering reform pilot policies, realized 121 projects and pilots with groundbreaking significance at the national and municipal levels, and cumulatively generated 107 institutional innovation outcomes. Among these, 15 original reform measures have been replicated and promoted nationwide, the highest number in the city; 14 reform measures have been promoted city-wide, demonstrating a significant leading role in openness and innovation.
By deepening institutional openness and optimizing the business environment, Chaoyang District has attracted a number of exemplary and landmark key projects. As of April 2026, the "Two Zones" initiative has seen 5,333 projects entered into its database, with 3,156 projects successfully implemented. This includes 831 foreign-funded projects entered and 446 foreign-funded projects landed, both ranking at the forefront in the city. Cumulatively, 2,775 new foreign-invested enterprises have been established, accounting for 27.3% of the city's total, with actual utilized foreign capital reaching $19.11 billion, representing 29.6% of the city's total.
From January to April this year, 333 projects were added to the "Two Zones" database, including 61 foreign-funded projects, both ranking first in the city. During this period, 147 projects were implemented with a total value of 30.179 billion yuan. Actual utilized foreign capital reached $870 million, a year-on-year increase of 2.4%, accounting for 23.7% of the city's total and ranking first among all districts. Contracted foreign investment attracted was $3.43 billion, a year-on-year increase of 19.8%.
This year, Chaoyang District has developed 16 institutional innovation cases in fields such as digital trade, consumption promotion, market supervision, and engineering approval. The Beijing CBD was rated as the top domestic performer in the latest round of global business district attractiveness rankings.
Moving forward, Chaoyang District will research and formulate new open reform plans, including "Demonstration Zone 3.0" and strategies for the high-quality development of service trade and digital trade. It will continue to advance research on the coordinated development zones of the Free Trade Zone and the construction of a bonded logistics center (Type B).
Zhongguancun Chaoyang Park will focus on building a "Science and Technology Hundred Parks," deepen industrial innovation and international cooperation in artificial intelligence and other "3+X+N" sectors, and further aggregate international venture capital, scientific organizations, and international talent resources. Leveraging the Cultural and Creative Experimental Zone, it will strengthen the development of industrial clusters in digital audiovisual, publishing, entertainment, gaming/esports, and IP trend toys.
Chaoyang District is constructing a full-cycle foreign affairs service system to address the challenges faced by international organizations during their establishment and development. It has innovatively introduced a "Government Affairs Butler + Operations Butler" dual-butler precise service model, providing key international organizations with end-to-end closed-loop services from initial contact and preparation to establishment and operation. For international conferences organized by key international organizations, the district has compressed approval cycles, enhancing the flexibility and efficiency of conference organization and providing full-chain event management services.
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