Photo: Courtesy of Beijing's new municipal administrative center

The Universal Beijing Resort's spillover effect is expected to be continuously released, while Beijing's Tongzhou district, where the resort is located, is striving to expand its opening-up and improve its service for foreign investors, an official said on Tuesday.

With an open and inclusive attitude, the Tongzhou district aims to foster its cultural and tourism industries into a window opening up to the world, Yang Lei, deputy head of the Tongzhou district, told the Global Times on the sidelines of a press conference.


"The resort experienced some difficulties during the COVID-19 pandemic… It is expected that it will see substantial growth this year," Yang told the Global Times, vowing that the district will strive to expand opening-up and welcome investment from within China and overseas.

During the press briefing, officials said that the Beijing municipal government is giving the Tongzhou district government and Beijing's new municipal administrative center in Tongzhou, which is dubbed as the city's sub-center, more administrative powers.

As a result, there will be more efficient and convenient approval procedures for foreign investors operating entertainment venues in specific areas or other business activities, according to Yang.

A total of 184 new kinds of administrative powers were given by the Beijing municipal government to the Tongzhou district's departments and the management committee of Beijing's new municipal administrative center. Generally, they can be divided into approval powers and supervision powers, officials noted at the conference. 

It was the third batch of such empowerments.

It will help create a world-class business climate for the new municipal administrative center and attract foreign investors to start businesses here; and this also will be conducive to the release of the spillover effect of the Universal Beijing Resort and boost the synergy development of the region's cultural and tourism sector, according to Yang.

Promoted by the empowerment, the business environment of the new municipal administrative center has been continuously optimized, with its level of enterprise satisfaction ranking first in the city. Last year, 51 foreign-invested firms were newly registered in the district, said Hu Jiulong, deputy director of the city's sub-center management committee.

After China optimized its COVID-19 management in December 2022, the country has seen a rapid recovery of economic activities, including the tourism sector. According to media reports, since the start of 2023, the visitor flow of the Universal Beijing Resort has remained at a high level, and the proportion of tourists from outside Beijing has increased significantly.

Per data released on January 21 by Qunar, an online travel platform, ticket sales for the resort jumped 19 times during the month compared with the same period of the previous month.

In 2022, companies in the cultural, sports and entertainment industries above designated size in Tongzhou achieved year-on-year growth of 59.8 percent. 

Global Times