Beijing Opens Bio and Medical Center Bids as City Rides out of SARS Slowdown with High Employment and Tax Breaks

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Researched by Industrialinfo.com (Industrial Information Resources, Incorporated; Houston, Texas). Bidding is now open for the design and specification of a bioengineering and medical industrial base in Beijing's Daxing industrial zone. The design plan will focus on developing the engineering and medicine industry and improving its ability for technical innovation and industrial competition. The aim is to make the Daxing development China's largest bioengineering and medicine industrial base within the next decade. The medical industrial base covers 28 square kilometers and has already attracted $1.25 billion.

The Daxing district government said that the top six selected plans would receive grants of $150,000 each. The appraising committee will be composed of nine renowned urban planners, architects, and economists. The application process has started after the announcement at the end of July and the bid results are scheduled to be available by November 12, 2003.

The bioengineering and medical industry is one of the four targeted high tech pillar industries in Beijing for the 2001-2005 period.

In the first six months of this year, Beijing's local government invested $147 million in public health, which was 75.8 percent higher when compared to the same period last year. $137 million had been invested in SARS prevention and control work by June said Wu Shixiong, director of the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Finance. In that total, $34 million was spent on the purchase of medical treatment equipment and $27 million on disinfection equipment. Payment for SARS related equipment and services was turned round in 24 hours demonstrating the new sense of urgency by the authorities.

The China Daily reports that at the city's planning and development conference in July, it was announced that, despite the SARS outbreak, Beijing's gross domestic product (GDP) increased 9.6 percent year-on-year to $18.26 billion for the first six months of the year.

In the same period, foreign investment was up 19.6 percent and utilized foreign investment was up 11.8 percent to $1.02 billion. Local business in Beijing exported $3.3 billion of goods and services, which was 33.9 percent up on last year and imported $610 million, which was a 43.4 percent increase. The city's net income of $3.7 billion for the six months was up 19.5 percent for the period and represents half the annual city budget spend. These figures played out against the negative impact of SARS and the contingent policy of tax reduction. Tourism went down by $2.4 billion in April to June and retailing has lost $975 million since April.

But with an unemployment rate of 1.44 percent (0.1 percent down on 2002) the city has made a comeback since May and is absorbing the SARS induced economic growth rate drop it experienced of 2.1 percent to build on that 9.6 percent GDP growth rate.