(Yicai) Sept. 4 -- Beijing, Tianjin, and Hebei province have signed major investment projects worth CNY104.5 billion (USD14.4 billion) at the China International Fair for Trade in Services.

The 51 projects cover 13 key industries, including modern services, scientific and technological services, digital economy, finance, green energy and eco-friendly energy conservation, biomedicine, and aerospace.

The annual China International Fair for Trade in Services is being held in Beijing from Sept. 2 to 6 under this year’s theme of Opening Up Leads Development, Cooperation Delivers the Future.

China’s unswerving opening-up has brought new opportunities for foreign-funded enterprises to develop in the country, Commerce Vice Minister Guo Tingting said at the Invest Beijing Global Summit during the CIFTIS. The coordinated development of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region will continue to provide them with new policy dividends, development space, and investment opportunities, she noted.

At the summit, the governments of Beijing, Tianjin, and Hebei signed a deal to set up a joint working committee on investment promotion to attract businesses and industrial projects with strong capabilities in order to tempt their suppliers into establishing a better industrial ecology in the area.

Moreover, the committee will be responsible for guiding the proposed new projects and their suppliers to sink roots in suitable areas based on the local economic and technological level to best use the local resources and promote the better economic development of the region as a whole.

Beijing’s government released a policy document to support foreign-funded enterprises in forming research and development centers in Beijing on the same day. The city will award CNY50 million (USD6.9 million) to high-quality foreign-funded R&D centers newly established in the capital and as much as CNY20 million to expand and upgrade their existing projects.

The document also includes incentives for foreign-funded R&D centers in Beijing to carry out cutting-edge scientific and technological innovation to effectively reduce the burden and pressure on such hubs and enhance their sense of integration and belonging to the area.

Seventy-three foreign-funded institutions, including US chipmaker Intel, US software titan Microsoft, and French digital automation and energy management giant Schneider Electric, have set up R&D centers in the Chinese capital.

Beijing’s continuous efforts to optimize its business environment will play a positive role in attracting more investment, Meng Pu, chairman of Qualcomm China, said in a speech at the CIFTIS. Qualcomm hopes to work with more industrial partners in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region in the future, Meng noted.

Editors: Tang Shihua, Futura Costaglione