Foreign Trade

Motorola, Siemens, et al...the office buildings for these international companies in Beijing indicate that its market has been tapped. At the same time, more "made-in-Beijing" products became bestsellers in overseas markets. In 2005, Beijing outlined a multidimensional, multilayered and multisectored layout, and the exploitation of the foreign capital showed a rapidly increasing momentum. The total volume of exports and imports in Beijing was US$125.57 billion, of which the export volume was US$30.87 billion.

The total volume of exports and imports of local enterprises was valued at US$40.32 billion, with US$17.1 billion for exports. Of exports by local enterprises, the volume for exported mechanical and electronic products was US$12.05 billion, increasing 69.2 percent. The volume for exported high-tech products was US$8.99 billion, increasing 73.8 percent. The two figures accounted for 70.5 percent and 52.6 percent of exports by local enterprises and increased by 3.4 percentage points and 3.9 percentage points over 2004.

During the Tenth Five-Year Plan, Beijing actually used US$12 billion of foreign capital, an annual increase of 7.8 percent on average. Manufacturing industry became the focus of foreign investment, and auto manufacturing and the electronic information industry led the way for the rapid development of the city's modern industry.

During the period 2001-04, about 2,083 new manufacturing projects were approved, an increase of 30.2 percent involving the contracted foreign investment of US$4.91 billion. A group of projects had boosted the rapid development of Beijing's high-tech and manufacturing industries, including the Zhongxin International and Jingdongfang LCD projects, both with investments of US$1.25 billion, and the Benz car project, with an investment of 144 billion euros (US$178.9 billion).

The accumulative total volume for Beijing's exports and imports rose to US$392.74 billion, increasing by 1.3 times more than during the Ninth Five-Year Plan. The export volume totalled to US$92.7 billion, increasing 85 percent. The accumulative total volume of exports and imports by local enterprises was US$114.76 billion, with US$45.84 for export, reflecting increases of 2 times and 1.9 times more than during the Ninth Five-Year Plan. The city signed 2,136 foreign-invested projects, and increase of 18.3 percent over that of 2004. Contracted foreign investment was US$6.52 billion, increasing by 4.2 percent. The actual use of foreign investment was US$3.53 billion, an increase of 14.4 percent. During the Tenth Five-Year Plan, Beijing signed 7,821 foreign-invested projects, with a contracted foreign investment of US$21.96 billion.

In 2005, Beijing's overseas contracted projects and outbound labour services raised US$720 million of business volume, an increase of 19.5 percent over 2004. During the Tenth Five-Year Plan, the accumulative business volume was US$208 million, an increase of 38.7 percent over the Ninth Five-Year Plan. In 2005, the quality of Beijing's foreign investment use was also improved. The city's foreign-invested enterprises made bigger progress in business volume. From 2001 to 2004, foreign-invested enterprises paid 88.07 billion yuan in taxes, accounting for 33 percent of the city's fiscal revenues. The total volume of exports by foreign-invested enterprises was US$18.1 billion, accounting for 63 percent of the city's export volume.

During the Tenth Five-Year Plan, Beijing's "overseas-bound" strategy made remarkable progress. From 2001 to 2004, Beijing approved 133 projects that required investing overseas, an increase of 40 percent over that of the Ninth Five-Year Plan. The total volume of agreed investment was US$636 million, 10 times the figure for the Ninth Five-Year Plan. Enterprises such as Jingdongfang also adopted "overseas-bound" strategies, with three successful acquisitions of overseas enterprises.