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Beijing plans to issue a series of regulations in a bid to become home to more multinationals.
Zhang Mao, Beijing's vice-mayor, said that the municipal government has formulated a draft of the regulations and sent it to the relative departments for discussion and improvement. The policies are expected to be released very soon.
An official with the city's Commerce Bureau, who wanted to remain anonymous, said the draft includes all of the preferential policies that other municipalities, cities and provinces have promised to offer translational enterprises.
"Beijing boasts unique advantages," said Zhang.
"Transnational firms want to be based in an economic policy-making and supervision centre, a hub inhabited by professionals and a location boasting prosperous markets. Beijing is all of that."
Despite the draft, the city already has a more tangible scheme in place to lure multinationals - Advanced Business Park (ABP), which is under construction.
It will become a centre for the headquarters of companies.
Located in the city's southern Fengtai District, ABP is being developed by Dauphin Science Business Park Construction & Development Co Ltd.
The company is a venture involving British Dauphin International Group, Beijing Fengtai Science Park Construction and Development Co Ltd and Beijing Dauphin Digital Park Construction & Development Co Ltd, who hold 45 per cent, 40 per cent and 25 per cent, respectively.
According to Xu Weiping, chairman of the joint venture, the combined investment for ABP will be 4.5 billion yuan (US$543 million).
ABP will cover 65 hectares and the combined building area for over 500 headquarters will exceed 1.06 million square metres.
"Construction of ABP is expected to be completed by 2008," said Xu.
In addition, Beijing's central business district, located in its northeast Chaoyang District, and Eastern Beijing's Financial Street, are also seen as lucrative prospects for multinationals, as they are the capital's business and financial hubs.
Sources from the Beijing Investment Promotion Bureau said 20 transnational enterprises have set up their Chinese headquarters in Beijing. They include Motorola, Nortel Networks Nokia, ABB and LG.
Shanghai, southern China's most prosperous city and China's traditional financial centre, is pushing Beijing the hardest.
It was the home to 41 multinationals' headquarters, including GE, HSBC, CitiBank, Philip, Carrefour and Kodak, by the end of July.
Experts say headquarters in Beijing are focused on the telecommunication and information industries, while manufacturing, finance and commerce groups prefer Shanghai.
"It may be because of Shanghai's history as China's financial and commercial centre," said Wang Zhile, researcher with the Multinational Economy Research Centre at the Ministry of Commerce.
Furthermore, Shanghai's flexible policies, streamlined procedures and rich business environment are more attractive than Beijing's.
It is estimated that, after the competition of ABP, the multinational headquarters' centre will contribute 1.5 billion yuan (US$181 million) in taxes each year and the annual industrial and trade revenue for the park will reach 50 billion yuan (US$6 billion).
In Shanghai's Pudong New District, the hub for headquarters in that city, its 5,000 foreign-funded companies paid taxes totalling about 5 billion yuan (US$548 million) during the first three months this year, up 50 per cent compared to the same time last year.


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