"It's time for Beijing to change its essential appeal to investors from favourable policies to an ideal comprehensive investment environment," Beijing Vice-Mayor Zhang Mao said on Monday.

But there's no reason to believe Beijing will call off its present preferential policies encouraging foreign investment in the city.

"We see no indication at present that the current favourable policies will be affected," Zhang said. "If there is a change, it will only make things easier for foreign investors. More restrictions could be lifted in the future to comply with World Trade Organization (WTO) regulations."

He said the Beijing Municipal People's Congress, the city's top legislature and the municipal government are making sure the city's regulations fit WTO guidelines to create a global investment environment.

A survey authorized by the municipal government indicates the biggest shortcoming in Beijing's investment environment is local government's "tedious formalities and poor efficiency."

Therefore, the municipal government will further simplify its examination and approval procedure in admitting investment, the vice-mayor said.

Beijing has cancelled 1,188 such procedures -- 58.3 percent of the total -- and will call off another 183 this year, leaving only 850.

"We are proud to say that most investment applications can now be processed at one stop and no longer have to be passed among various governmental departments," Zhang said.

Moreover, the municipal government is cultivating a sense of "serving the investors" among officials.

Zhang explained the governmental mechanism and local market order cannot be made more efficient without a change in local officials' attitudes.

To achieve this goal, Zhang invited foreign investors to supervise.

As for the city's infrastructure, Zhang said he is confident Beijing will be an ideal place for foreign investors to work and live.

Beijing has already been ranked the Chinese city with "the greatest development potential" by authoritative organizations like the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

The Chinese capital boasts of 556 hotels suitable for foreign guests. And it has the country's largest population of telephone, mobile phone and Internet users.

It also has established several promising developmental zones of various characteristics.

While Zhongguancun is an increasingly better incubation site of high-tech companies of information industry, high-tech and international processing companies might find the Beijing Economic-Technological Developmental Area more ideal.

And the Central Business District in eastern Beijing is designed to accommodate the regional headquarters of international companies.

Foreign-funded enterprises contributed to 49 percent of Beijing's industrial revenue and 60 percent of its exports last year.

By the end of last year, Beijing had admitted 17,029 foreign-invested enterprises, using altogether foreign funds of US$25.6 billion.

(China Daily January 29, 2002)