Projects worth more than $15b signed at fair

During the six-day 2021 China International Fair for Trade in Services, which ended on Tuesday, the host city of Beijing delivered a remarkable performance, displayed impressive achievements and launched an array of key city projects.

At the Beijing Day, a themed activity held on Sept 3, the city's 16 districts and the Beijing Economic-Technological Development Area signed agreements with 47 domestic and foreign enterprises. They involve 37 projects with an investment of more than 100 billion yuan ($15.49 billion).

Two of the projects, valued at 14.3 billion yuan, will be in Chaoyang district. In total, Chaoyang signed agreements for projects worth 15.6 billion yuan during this year's CIFTIS, covering sectors such as healthcare, e-commerce and financial services.

Chaoyang also held an exhibition on cultural and tourism services at the Shougang Industrial Park, one of the two venues for the 2021 CIFTIS.

The exhibition gathered about 60 cultural enterprises from Chaoyang, and built multiple scenarios to showcase their latest cultural products and cutting-edge technologies, according to organizers.

For example, visitors could watch the scenery along the Grand Canal via equipment powered by intelligent interactive technology developed by digital tech company 360onefor, while opening mystery boxes at the booth of toy brand Pop Mart.

Chaoyang is currently home to 89,000 cultural companies, ranking first among the city's districts. From January to June, Chaoyang's culture, sports and entertainment industries registered a collective revenue of 26.44 billion yuan, up 45.5 percent year-on-year.

Consumption integrating culture and digital technologies has become a new engine for Chaoyang's growth, district officials said.

Haidian district set up a 420-square-meter display at the same venue and 325 local companies participated in its online exhibition.

As a core area for the capital's sci-tech development, the district hosted a promotion named the Night of Haidian on Sept 3 to introduce its business environment and attract projects.

Meanwhile, an exhibition was launched during the activity, showcasing achievements Haidian had made in supporting the city's endeavors to build a pilot free trade zone and a national comprehensive development zone for the opening-up of the service sector.

On Monday, Haidian held the 2021 Digital Trade Development Forum, attracting academics and industry leaders from India, Japan, the Philippines, Germany and Poland. Representatives shared insights into industrial trends and offered their solutions to international cooperation on digital trade.

At the Beijing Economic-Technological Development Area, also known as Beijing ETown, 318 enterprises took part in the fair's online and offline exhibitions.

Exhibits included an unmanned delivery vehicle from Chinese e-commerce company JD, an 8K ultrahigh-definition display panel from BOE and a network security system developed by Qi-anxin for the 2022 Winter Olympic Games.

Beijing ETown also signed contracts with six companies at the Beijing Day, with a combined investment exceeding 4.2 billion yuan.

Among them, electric motor maker Mavel will establish its headquarters in the area and JD is poised to construct a new office building.

The building, designed for JD's suppliers and business partners, will help these companies into the industrial circle of the area and boost coordinated industrial development, a representative from JD said.

Beijing's western Shijingshan district set up a 230-sq-m ice rink at the sports services exhibition area. As the 2022 Winter Olympics is fast approaching, the rink offered a variety of activities such as ice hockey and ice sledging to stir up people's enthusiasm, organizers said.

Fengtai district's "digital renminbi avenue" was a popular site at the fair, where visitors could get a close look at different scenarios of digital renminbi usage.