A news conference on the results of the construction of the "Two Zones" before its first anniversary in the Beijing Economic and Technological Development Area was held on Aug 30, showing the remarkable achievements made by the BDA in the past year.

In terms of optimizing the business environment, the BDA established the first administrative examination and approval bureau in Beijing, simplified administrative examination and approval and took the lead in carrying out standardized reform of industrial land in Beijing.

Kong Lei, deputy director of the BDA Administrative Committee, introduces achievements made by the BDA on the first anniversary of the construction of the "Two Zones". [Photo/kfqgw.beijing.gov.cn]

The BDA also set up the world's first networked cloud-controlled high-level autonomous driving demonstration zone and the first domestic intelligent networked vehicle policy pilot zone. 

A total of 126 passenger vehicle licenses, 72 unmanned delivery vehicle codes and four truck licenses have been issued to companies such as Pony.ai and Baidu, with cumulative autonomous driving mileage of 1.26 million kilometers.

Since the construction of the "Two Zones" one year ago, 47 new foreign-funded enterprises have been added, a year-on-year increase of 123.8 percent; contracted foreign capital reached $1.395 billion, a year-on-year increase of 710 percent; actual use of foreign capital amounted to $498 million, a year-on-year increase of 83.5 percent; the number of new reserve projects exceeded 1,000, and nearly 200 projects have been signed, with total investment of more than 420 billion yuan ($65.62 billion). More than 170 projects have been included in Beijing's "Two Zones" work.

These contracted projects are mainly based around new-generation information technology, new energy smart cars, biotechnology and health, robotics and smart manufacturing and other industrial fields.

Biopharmaceutical company AstraZeneca's North China headquarters, Sanofi Beijing insulin expansion production projects, the SMIC Beijing project with investment of $7.6 billion into integrated circuits, SMC's first overseas regional headquarters and the Schneider Electric Digital Industry Demonstration Park project are all foreign investment projects started in Beijing since the construction of the "Two Zones".

At present, the BDA has become the only economic functional zone in China to integrate the policy advantages of a national-level economic development zone, national high-tech zone, the Zhongguancun independent innovation demonstration zone, service industry expansion and opening comprehensive demonstration zone and a free trade pilot zone.