The Beijing Central Business District (CBD) is a window for international exchanges between China and the world and a development base for the nation's headquarters economy and modern services industry.
The CBD is home to about 90 percent of the international media organizations in Beijing, about 80 percent of the municipality's international organizations and international chambers of commerce, about 80 percent of the multinational corporate regional headquarters, about 70 percent of the global top 500 corporations, about 70 percent of the world's international financial organizations and about 30 percent of the five-star hotels in the city.
With frequent international exchanges and multicultural communications, the registered foreign population in the area is close to 44,000. In 2011, about 50 percent of international conferences and 90 percent of the international business exhibitions in Beijing were held here. Since 2009, Beijing has engaged in eastward expansion for the CBD that will cover 3.05 million square meters, prioritizing development of the headquarters economy, international finance and high-end businesses to make it the capital’s modern high end business district.
By February 2012, there had been 1,470 above-designated-size modern service organizations (above-designated-size enterprises are those with annual revenues from their main businesses equal to or more than 20 million yuan ($3.1 million) in the CBD, accounting for 26.5 percent of total above-designated-size modern service organizations in the Chaoyang District; combined revenues were 38.1 billion yuan ($5.9 billion), accounting for 38.9 percent of Chaoyang District's total revenues, a year-on-year growth rate of 15 percent; the growth rate of their combined revenues was 1.9 percentage points higher than the growth rate of Chaoyang District's total revenues; they contributed 43.8 percent to the growth of Chaoyang District's modern tertiary industry income, generating combined profits of 4.18 billion yuan ($647.06 million) with a year-on-year growth rate of 54.2 percent, 31.8 percentage points higher than the growth rate of Chaoyang District's total modern tertiary industry profit; they contributed 47.1 percent to the growth of Chaoyang District's total modern service industry profit.