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 | Thursday, April 20, 2000, updated at 12:58(GMT+8) | ||||||||||||
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Foreign Enterprises Playing Bigger RoleOne-third of Beijing's newly approved foreign-funded companies are high-tech enterprises as the capital city is shifting its focus to the development of high-tech industries.Zhang Xuequn, spokesman for Beijing Municipal Foreign Economic and Trade Commission, said during a press conference on April 18 that the city approved 213 foreign-funded projects with contractual foreign investment of US$550 million in the first quarter of this year. Many high-tech firms, especially those dealing with computers or Internet businesses, have big investment plans, of which six with reported investment plans of over US$10 million each. With Internet fever sweeping the whole country, Beijing has become a hub for a large number of Internet companies. The capital city, with steel, machinery manufacturing and textiles as its pillar industries in the past, decided to adjust its industrial structure last year and is placing great importance on the development of high-tech industries. The China (Beijing) High-Tech Industries Week, held annually since 1998 in the capital city, has become an important event for the city to promote its high-tech sectors. Zhang said that 60 advanced technologies, valued at US$104 million, have been introduced to Beijing during the first quarter of this year. Beijing's exports of technologies hit US$40.12 million, up 11 per cent from the same period last year. The service industry also attracted growing foreign funds, Zhang said. More foreign investors are willing to invest in the fields of information, consul-tancy and computer application service. Zhang said the capital city recorded a 14.7 per cent growth in exports in the first quarter of this year, compared with the 7.5 per cent decline in the corresponding period last year. He owed the turnaround to the improvement of international economic situation, the country's effective measures to stimulate exports and robust export growth of foreign-funded firms. Foreign-funded enterprises played a key role in the export growth of Beijing, Zhang said. Their export volume reached US$521 million, 91.1 per cent up from the same period of 1999. Imports also posted a hefty 55.7 per cent rise to US$8.18 billion during this period. Total foreign trade volume of the city reached US$10.54 billion during the first quarter of this year, 44.1 per cent higher than the same period last year. Japan remains Beijing's largest export market, but Hong Kong is stealing more limelight with Beijing's exports to the special administrative region surging by 153.6 per cent in the January-March period.
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