Tourists go shopping and enjoy the festive atmosphere on Yandaixie Street at Houhai, a scenic spot in Beijing on January 12, 2023. Photo: VCG

China's capital city of Beijing sets its 2023 economic growth target at above 4.5 percent, with a similar gain for residents' income. The city will strive to keep urban unemployment rate at below 5 percent and maintain annual inflation rate at around 3 percent, a municipal meeting on Sunday revealed.

Beijing's GDP is expected to have grown in 2022, Yin Yong, acting mayor of Beijing, said on Sunday while delivering the government work report to the  the first session of the 16th Beijing Municipal People's Congress, the local legislature.

According to the report, Beijing's local CPI rose by 1.8 percent in 2022, the surveyed urban unemployment rate stayed within 5 percent, and the per capita disposable income of the city's residents grew steadily last year.

The city's economic aggregate or local GDP has exceeded 4 trillion yuan ($596 billion), and its per capita GDP has exceeded 180,000 yuan, ranking the highest among provincial-level regions and reaching the medium level of the developed economies, according to the report.

During the same period, actually utilized foreign investment in the city exceeded $75 billion.

In spite of the impact of the pandemic, the capital's opening economy achieved new highs.

Analysts attributed the results to the high contribution to the city's economy by high-tech and innovative industries, which provide momentum for high-quality and continuous growth in the coming years.

In the 12 months, the intensity of research and development (R&D) investment in Beijing remained at 6 percent. The country's intensity of R&D expenditure averages at 2.44 percent, according to the National Bureau of Statistics.

Beijing has consolidated and expanded its advantages in the development of digital economy, with the added value of the digital economy accounting for about 42 percent of local GDP.

Meanwhile, Beijing ranked among the top three in the Global Top 100 science and technology clusters, as announced by the World Intellectual Property Organization. 

The number of state-level high-tech enterprises, specialized and unicorn enterprises in Beijing all rank first in China.

Innovation-driven economic growth, even if it slows down, will still generate strong momentum for future development, Hu Qimu, deputy secretary general of the digital-real economies integration Forum 50, told the Global Times on Sunday.

"When the coronavirus and external shocks abate, China's economic growth will accelerate," said Hu.

According to Yin, the mayor, the city will focus on several aspects in 2023, including expanding consumption and coordinated development of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region.

Global Times