Strategic Industries

Strategic Industries

Beijing has an extremely diverse industrial make up, however, considering its role as the nation's capital; of course the financial sector is quite important in the city's overall economic structure, with tourism not far behind. Almost every foreign visitor to the country comes to Beijing at some point on their journey and domestically, almost all Chinese have a goal to reach the capital at some point in their lives. That said; Beijing has a robust IT and manufacturing sector as well and rounds out its pillar industries as follows: the financial sector, tourism, new and hi-tech industries and the modern manufacturing sector.

The Financial Industry
The financial industry plays a significant role in Beijing's economy. China's Wall Street is located in the western part of Beijing - the Beijing Financial Street. It is home to the headquarters of dozens of State-owned banks, economic regulatory bodies and industrial firms. They include the Bank of China, China Construction Bank, the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, the China Securities Regulatory Commission, China Telecom, China Mobile, and China Netcom Corporation. The hosting of the 2008 Olympic Games by Beijing means more business opportunities for the city's Financial Street.

In 2006, the financial sector's added value reached 97.4 billion RMB. There are many financial organizations and firms operating out of Beijing including 59 banks, 55 insurance companies, 199 trust companies and 226 securities companies and/or intermediary agencies specializing in finance. Substantial progress has been achieved in the opening up of the financial sector in Beijing. Since RMB business was opened to foreign funded banks on the 1st of December, 2004, foreign funded banks have officially launched RMB services and by 2006, altogether 24 branches and 92 representative offices of foreign funded banks have been established in Beijing.

In 2006, combined savings deposits in RMB and foreign exchange accounts from all financial institutions totaled 3.38 trillion RMB and gross insurance premium revenues reached 41.15 billion RMB.

Tourism
In 2006, Beijing played host to over 3.9 million visiting tourists including 3.38 million foreign tourists and 0.52 million people from Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan. Foreign exchange earnings for the tourism sector topped US$4.03 billion. The city also played host to over 132 million domestic tourists, with domestic tourism revenue reaching 148.27 billion RMB, bringing the total revenue of domestic and international tourism to 180.37 billion RMB. Occupancy rates of Beijing's star-rated hotels were 61.3%. The number of outbound tourists departing from Beijing was 792,000. There were 713 tourism agencies including 69 international and 644 domestic agencies. The number of foreign-invested tourism agencies was 13, or 45% of the total number of foreign-funded tourist agencies in all of China.

The Hi-Tech Sector
Beijing is vigorously pursuing development of its Hi-Tech sector, including the hi-tech manufacturing industry mainly represented by electronics and information technology firms, bio-pharmaceuticals, light mechanical and electrical integration and new materials as well as the hi-tech service industry mainly represented by information transmission, computer services, software, scientific research, technological service and geological exploration. In 2006, the industrial added value output of the hi-tech manufacturing sector including telecommunication equipment makers, computers and other electronic equipment was 33.02 billion RMB. Beijing's hi-tech sector produced 7.36 million computers, 47.66 million digital storage devices and 141.43 million mobile phones. There are over 20,000 new and hi-tech enterprises in the city, including famous Fortune 500 companies such as Microsoft, Motorola, P&G, Intel, France Telecom, and ABB.

Modern manufacturing
In 2006, the combined industrial value added output of Beijing's modern manufacturing industries reached 73.13 billion RMB, of which the industrial value added output of transportation equipment manufacturing was 16.34 billion RMB; that of the chemical raw materials and chemical products manufacturing sector was 10.83 billion RMB; that of the chemical processing, coking and nuclear fuel processing sectors was 4.43 billion RMB; and that of universal equipment manufacturing was 6.77 billion RMB. Beijing is placing more emphasis on cultivating automotive manufacturing, equipment manufacturing, chemical processing and the petrochemical industry. In 2006, Beijing produced 683,000 motor vehicles including 270,000 cars

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