Six years before the Beijing 2008 Summer Games it’s already reaping the rewards of hosting an Olympic Games. The number of Beijing businesses solely owned by foreign investors is on the increase.
The Beijing municipal government approved 259 foreign-funded businesses in the first quarter of this year, of which, 127 used foreign capital only.
Li Zhao, director of the municipal commission for foreign trade and economic cooperation said that winning the 2008 Games has brought Beijing excellent opportunities. The first quarter saw the establishment of 169 foreign representative offices, two for each working day on average. By the end of March, Beijing had approved 10,549 overseas representative offices, 60 per cent of the national total.
Meanwhile, Beijing’s municipal government has drawn up a new plan for curbing air pollution and removing dilapidated houses to create a favourable environment for the 2008 Games.
Dilapidated houses with a total floor space of 2.24 million square metres will be demolished and the plan calls for 200 days rated as excellent or fairly good in air quality.
For those houses torn down, Beijing’s mayor said more economical apartments will be built.
Other measures to improve the city’s air quality include reducing waste gas emissions, eliminating obsolete vehicles and curbing industrial pollution.
