Beijing will build a world class Central Business District (CBD) in its core area, said Jia Qinglin, secretary of the Beijing Municipal Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) in Beijing Friday.

The CBD will have a cosmopolitan style as well as a traditional Chinese style, said the official Friday when meeting with a panel of experts who examined and commented on blueprints submitted by applicants all over the world.
Last year, the city asked for worldwide bids for the CBD design, and has now received eight candidate scenarios.

About two kilometers east of Tiananmen Square, the CBD will cover some 4 sq km in Beijing's Chaoyang District, where over 60 percent of the city's foreign-funded companies and more than 50 percent of its star hotels are located.

Forty-three office buildings, apartment buildings and other facilities have been built so far in the area. Ninety-two of the 156 large multinational companies that represented in Beijing, such as Motorola and Samsung, have already set up their representative offices in and near the planned CBD area.

The CBD plan was initiated in the early 1990s, and it has been included in Beijing's 10th Five-Year Plan period (2001-2005).

(People's Daily 04/07/2001)