Haidian's high-tech contributes much to GDP

Beijing's Haidian district last year became the first prefecture-level district in the country to surpass the 1 trillion yuan ($147.52 billion) threshold in GDP, driven by its science and technology innovations, a senior official said on Thursday.

Haidian's 2022 GDP grew 3.5 percent year-on-year, said Wang Zhenrong, spokesperson for the Haidian district bureau of statistics.

According to the district, its total revenue of high-tech enterprises reached 3.8 trillion yuan in 2022, increasing 7.5 percent. The added value of core industries in the digital economy contributed over 50 percent of Beijing's GDP.

In 2022, high-tech enterprises in Haidian spent 203.83 billion yuan in science research and development, increasing by 7.8 percent and representing 52.7 percent of that of Beijing.

"In 2023, we will intensify efforts in sci-tech innovation by developing quantum information, disruptive materials and open source chips, supporting universities and enterprises participating in national research projects, accelerating the transformation of scientific research and building a modern industrial system," said Wang Yuxia, deputy director of the Haidian district development and reform commission.

"Since 1994, we spent 10 percent of our annual revenue on R&D each year. For a manufacturing company, such investment for such a long time is rare. That gives us a leading position in the industry," said Xi Shuyang, vice-president of Beijing Sifang Automation Co Ltd, a mechanical and electrical product supplier.

Haidian also made efforts to help enterprises prosper. In 2022, 40.5 billion yuan in renewed loans and initial loans were approved, both up by over 30 percent. Some 12,800 small, medium-sized and micro enterprises, as well as individual businesses enjoyed a VAT rebate of 16.49 billion yuan.

In 2022, 34,900 new enterprises were established, up 58.5 percent year-on-year. Of them, 19 were publicly listed companies and 285 companies were new foreign companies.

Haidian is a leader in providing cross-provincial public services by applying ChainMaker, China's first autonomous controllable blockchain hardware and software technology system. Using ChainMaker, low-risk real estate investment project completions and registrations are processed simultaneously and internet livestreaming anchors are able to register as market entities in the form of a "cluster registration".