About 158 out of the world's top 500 companies have established headquarters or enterprises in Beijing, an official said Monday.
Xu Heyi, deputy director of the Beijing Municipal Economy
Committee said that Beijing had approved 11,572 foreign
partnership enterprises by 2001, with investment totaling 13
billion U.S. dollars, and over 9,600 foreign companies had set up Beijing offices.
Beijing, which won the right to host the 2008 Olympic Games,
has become a key high-tech production base for multinational firms. In 2001, 70 percent of the Beijing foreign partnerships' output involved high-tech products.
Nearly 100 well-known foreign companies have established
research and development centers in Beijing. Nokia set up its
largest mobile communication production base in Beijing, and
Microsoft spent 80 million U.S. dollars on its China research
institute.
(Xinhua News Agency March 19, 2002)
|