The 7th China Beijing International Hi-tech Expo (CHITEC) is being held in Beijing from May 21 to 26.

Initiated in 1998, China Beijing International High-tech Industries Week was officially renamed China Beijing International High-tech Expo at its fifth session in 2002, and given its abbreviated name, CHITEC, in 2003.

With six successful events under its belt, CHITEC has become an international platform for domestic and foreign hi-tech industries to keep abreast of cutting-edge technologies as well as to forge new and stronger ties. According to the organizing committee of the 7th CHITEC, 2,100 enterprises have registered for this year's expo, with a notable increase in the scale of participation by domestic enterprises.

Great changes have taken place in Beijing since the first China Beijing International High-tech Industries Week. Eight new concepts promoted at previous six expos played a significant role in boosting the development of the capital city's economy:

High-risk technology investment: Speculative technology investment has been one of the most influential concepts at all six previous CHITECs. In the early years of CHITEC, the shock waves of the Asian financial crisis were still reverberating. Banks were very cautious about any investment and the stock market drop frightened off many other potential sources of funds. Against this backdrop, the new Internet economy arrived on the scene, and a crowd of high-tech enterprises was looking eagerly for financing. Venture capital investment overseas was booming at that time.

"A new economic pattern has arrived. We have to find a new and powerful lever to stimulate economic development. Learning from the experiences of the United States, one way is to develop the venture capital industry in a big way," said one entrepreneur at the 1999 High-tech Industries Week.

From 1998 to 2001, a number of international IT and venture capital investment companies, including International Data Corporation (IDC), H&Q Asia Pacific and Kodak Venture all stepped up to the plate at CHITEC. Leading economist Wu Jinlian and People's Bank of China Governor Zhou Xiaochuan appeared to give counsel on high-risk, high-reward investment in China.

Government procurement: Government procurement has become a specialty of CHITEC.

Market reforms and privatization of industry meant that China's government had to develop a procurement system in the 1990s. The central government launched its system in 1996 and Beijing Municipality followed a year later. The new concept of government procurement was a magnet for attention at the 1998 High-tech Industries Week, and interest continued to grow.

When the first negotiation meeting on government procurement and technological transformation projects was held at High-tech Industries Week in 1999, the projects negotiated were worth 60 million yuan (US$7.2 million). The first special government procurement venue opened in 2000 for negotiation of 17 projects with a combined total capital of more than 100 million yuan (US$12 million). In 2001, procurement by the Beijing municipal government amounted to 308 million yuan (US$37 million).

Leaders of Beijing economy and trade have begun to consider making the capital city the nation's procurement center. They believe that CHITEC has built a super stage with Beijing at the center of culture, logistics and capital circulation.

Headquarters economy: It was at last year's 6th CHITEC that the concept of a headquarters economy was first proposed.

"The so-called headquarters economy concept envisions an assembly of multinational companies, creating attractive conditions and forming a rational division of labor," said Zhao Hong, deputy chief of the Economic Research Institute, Beijing Academy of Social Science, at last year's CHITEC.

Although the success of a regional economy depends on the local environment and policies, together with dynamic and innovative enterprises and products, the concept of the headquarters economy has been an influential one. By July 2003, 24 multinational companies had set up their regional headquarters in Beijing; in Shanghai, there were 41.

Standards economy: The standard economy was a favorite topic at last year's CHITEC, in connection with the numerous lawsuits that Chinese enterprises had encountered overseas concerning intellectual property rights (IPR) in recent years.

"Third-class enterprises sell labor, second-class enterprises sell products, first-class enterprises sell technologies, super-class enterprises sell standards authentication," was the phrase of the day at CHITEC 2003.

Chinese enterprises began to take a new look at standards and their importance of encountering some severe situations abroad. Large corporations in France, Canada and the US began requiring domestic TV makers to pay them patent fees. Later, other corporations required Chinese manufacturers such as Huawei Technologies, Datang Telecom Technology and Industry Group and Nanjing Iron and Steel to pay huge sums for licensing.

"IPR is an important part of a company's core competitive strength. The quality and quantity of a company's IPR reflect its wealth and competitive strength," said an expert at last year's CHITEC. She exhorted China to develop its own IPR strategy. Developed countries gain the maximum benefit by pursuing the IPR protection through patents, while domestic enterprises still seemed not to understand the game rules.

At last year's CHITEC, people reached a consensus that the era of the standards economy has arrived.

Overseas listing: No other domestic gathering rivals CHITEC in its ability to attract representatives of major world stock exchanges to come and woo Chinese enterprises. Through face-to-face communications, Chinese companies can learn more about listing overseas.

Chinese people are generally familiar with NASDAQ and Hong Kong's Growth Enterprise Market. But at CHITEC, representatives from the American Stock Exchange, London Stock Exchange, Singapore Stock Exchange and Canadian Stock Exchange gave many enterprises invaluable tips on listing overseas that may eventually save them substantial time and money.

"In additional to explain the rules and conditions for overseas listing, those financial magnates also closely connected with the promotion market of the domestic stock brokers and directly communicated with listed enterprises," said a Chinese entrepreneur, "It makes us feel that overseas listing is no longer an untouchable thing for Chinese enterprises."

Digital Beijing: Digital Beijing first became a hot topic at CHITEC 2001, and as the concept of a digital Olympics continues to grow the topic is heating up even more.

Informationization is one of Beijing's important city development strategies.

The digital Olympics demo at CHITEC 2003 gave viewers a glimpse of what digital Beijing is all about. People could choose to watch any game at home through an information terminal, with such realistic sound and imaging that they felt they were on the field. They could call up kinescopes from previous competitions and check background materials on athletes while watching the game.

CHITEC has led the informationization of Beijing to center stage and turned on the spotlight.

Incubator: The enterprise incubator is an organization that provides various feasible and creative ideas for companies. Incubators have a short history in China: the first was set up in 1987 in Wuhan, Hubei Province, in central China.

By 2002, the framework of Beijing's enterprise incubation system was basically formed. There were 47 incubators in Beijing, 15 percent more than the total in the rest of the country. The number of incubating sci-tech enterprises and projects reached 1,100.

People referred to Beijing as the "hi-tech incubator" at the 5th CHITEC.

The Sci-tech Enterprise Incubator Forum held at previous CHITECs attracted the attention of hi-tech specialists around the world. The big incubator of Beijing is hatching a thriving hi-tech industry. Some 30 percent of the added value of Beijing industry is derived from the hi-tech industries. High and new technologies have contributed an average of more than 2 billion yuan (US$241 million) in added value every month.

E-government: E-government is a household name nowadays, but when the 5th CHITEC held China's first E-government and public executive forum in 2002, few people knew much, if anything, about it.

"E-government will not only lead to great reform of China's government administration, but also will create a huge industry," said one expert. The business opportunities that will appear for the IT industry when governments at all levels fully implement the concept are astounding. Already, e-government has become a hot industry with annual output worth several billion yuan. 

(China.org.cn by Wang Qian May 22, 2004)