Beijing sets to open up services sector and digital economy

Beijing plans to build a comprehensive demonstration zone to fulfill China's initiative to drive innovation-based development and further open up its services sector and digital economy.

The local government has signed new agreements with 26 companies, including Alibaba Health Information Technology, Star Alliance and SF Express.

The zone, located in northeast Beijing's Shunyi district, will utilize the government's "3+7+N" model.

"3" refers to the industrial zones: Tianzhu Free Trade Zone, Capital Airport Economic Demonstration Zone and Sino-German International Cooperation Industrial Park. These zones are set to serve companies in "7" sectors: aviation services, cross-border finance, cultural trade, business exhibition, digital trade, healthcare and international delivery and logistics.

"N" represents the overall goal to improve the business environment and facilitate free investment and trade in the zones.

Tianzhu Free Trade Zone, operating since July 2009, is the first airport-based free trade zone and the first Special Customs Supervision Zone in China.

Beijing Capital International Airport, China's busiest and the world's second busiest airport, is located in the district.

The zone covers 28.5 square kilometers, the largest cluster of service platforms in the city.

The pandemic has put a spotlight on the opening-up and reform measures in the healthcare sector.

Alibaba Health is among the first batch of companies to enjoy the benefits of Beijing's policy on cross-border e-commerce in the healthcare sector announced in December 2019.

Liu Xiao, senior director of Alibaba Health Information Technology, shared his thoughts on how the new zone can help companies.

"Under the impact of the pandemic, overseas travel has been hit quite hard. However, the demand for overseas products continues to surge," he said.

Bonded warehouse stocking is still a major method of operation for e-commerce sales of health-related and medical products, Liu said. The new measures will further boost efficiency and allow the platforms to meet customers' demands on time.