The annual meeting of the 2023 China Development Forum was held on Mar 26, where more than 40 executives of multinational corporations, foreign dignitaries, and leaders of international institutions gathered in Beijing to discuss cooperation.

From Mar 23, the main leaders of the municipal Party committee and government had intensive meetings with global executives of multinational corporations and foreign dignitaries, such as Johnson & Johnson, Temasek, Schneider Electric, P&G, BMW, HSBC, Standard Chartered, who have good cooperation relations with Beijing. 

The key word unanimously mentioned by entrepreneurs is "confidence".

This confidence comes from the accelerated release of a report on China's economic vitality and the sustained momentum provided by Chinese-style modernization. 

According to data from the National Bureau of Statistics, from January to February of this year, the added value of industries above designated size in the country increased by 2.4 percent year-on-year, which was 1.1 percentage points faster than in December 2022; the national fixed asset investment (excluding rural households) was 5.3577 trillion yuan ($779.27 billion), an increase of 5.5 percent year-on-year.

The overall improvement of Beijing's economy is also being realized, with fixed asset investment (excluding rural households) from January to February increasing by 6.4 percent year-on-year, among which high-tech industry investment has achieved rapid growth. Investment in high-tech manufacturing grew by 28.5 percent and investment in high-tech services expanded by 40.1 percent.

The world is bullish on Beijing, as it creates a first-class business environment for corporate development. 

Taking the construction of the "Two Zones" as an opportunity, Beijing is actively carrying out institutional opening-up pilot projects in rules, regulations, management, and standards, promoting the construction of comprehensive demonstration zones for further opening up the service industry, implementing actions to upgrade the free trade zone, iterating and upgrading reform measures to improve the business environment, and providing better services for foreign-invested enterprises in Beijing.

As a new business card of an international consumer center city, a global digital economy benchmark city, a national financial management center, and a modern infrastructure system under construction, entrepreneurs have identified Beijing as a breeding ground for development.

A view of Schneider (Beijing) Medium Low Voltage Company [Photo/beijingetown.com.cn]

Schneider Electric Beijing Plant, located in Beijing E-Town, is the largest factory of Schneider Electric in the world in terms of single output. 

Zhao Guohua, chairman and CEO of the company, recalled his working years in Beijing and shared that it was a "very fortunate thing" to enter the Chinese market and participate in Beijing's urban construction. 

"Beijing is promoting the transformation of industry digitization, intelligence, and low-carbonization, which brings us new market opportunities and development space. We hope to participate in Beijing's infrastructure construction and the coordinated development of Beijing, Tianjin, and Hebei on a larger scale, and also hope to use our professional advantages to help more customers move towards digital and sustainable development paths," remarked Zhao.