Beijing's "15th Five-Year Plan" will implement the "AI+" initiative to build a globally influential high-precision industry cluster | Focus on Zhongguancun Forum

Our newspaper (chinatimes.net.cn) reporter Liu Yurou and Xu Yunqian Beijing Photography Report

On the afternoon of March 25, the 2026 Investment Beijing Conference was held at the Zhongguancun International Innovation Center.

Vice Mayor Tang Wenhong of Beijing told media including “Huaxia Times,” “During the 14th Five-Year Plan period, Beijing will focus on promoting technological innovation, strengthening strategic scientific forces such as national laboratories, and implementing the ‘Artificial Intelligence+’ initiative; building globally influential high-end industrial clusters, developing emerging and future industries; creating a first-class international business environment, aligning with international high-standard trade rules, and deepening the ‘streamlining administration, delegating power, and improving services’ reform.”

This investment conference not only showcases the high-quality development achievements of Beijing during the 14th Five-Year Plan but also serves as a strategic declaration for industrial upgrading and the deepening of coordinated development between Beijing, Tianjin, and Hebei during the 15th Five-Year Plan.

Economic scale of 5.2 trillion yuan solidifies the foundation for high-quality development

During the 14th Five-Year Plan, Beijing delivered impressive results in economic and social development, with comprehensive strength, innovation capacity, and industrial quality achieving historic leaps.

“By 2025, Beijing’s gross regional product will reach 5.2 trillion yuan, an increase of 5.4%, with per capita GDP about $34,000, reaching the level of middle-developed countries. The social R&D investment intensity has maintained around 6% for many years, annual technology contract transaction volume approaches one trillion yuan, and the digital economy accounts for over 44%,” Tang Wenhong said.

Innovation-driven development is a defining feature of Beijing. The city’s overall social R&D investment intensity has remained stable at around 6% for years, ranking first nationwide and reaching top international innovation regions; annual technology contract transactions near one trillion yuan, with continuous leading efficiency in transforming innovative results; digital economy exceeding 44%, with digital industrialization and industrial digitalization empowering each other, forming a solid framework for a global digital economy benchmark city.

Gujin Xu, Deputy Director of the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Economy and Information Technology, reviewed the achievements of the 14th Five-Year Plan, stating that the city’s industrial capacity and development quality have significantly improved, technological innovation advantages have continued to emerge, and the transformation towards intelligence, green development, and integration has achieved remarkable results. The comprehensive competitiveness of enterprises has been enhanced, and the industrial collaboration between Beijing, Tianjin, and Hebei has deepened.

Lin Jianhua, Deputy Director of the Beijing Development and Reform Commission, further pointed out that during the 14th Five-Year Plan, Beijing has formed multiple trillion-yuan and hundred-billion-yuan industrial clusters, with significant technological innovation results. The city’s functional quality and industrial development levels have improved in tandem, laying a solid foundation for the layout of emerging industries, future industries, and coordinated development with Tianjin and Hebei during the 15th Five-Year Plan.

AI+ leading, full-chain empowerment to build a global industrial hub

Looking ahead to the 15th Five-Year Plan, Beijing clearly states that technological innovation and industrial upgrading will be the core strategies, establishing a clear, well-supported modern industrial system.

Tang Wenhong emphasized that Beijing will focus on promoting high-level technological independence and self-reliance, strengthening strategic scientific forces such as national laboratories, and fully implementing the “Artificial Intelligence+” initiative. By leveraging general AI to empower various industries, the city aims to build globally influential high-end industrial clusters. It will continue to create a first-class international business environment, align with high-standard international trade rules, and deepen the “streamlining administration, delegating power, and improving services” reform, attracting global high-end elements through institutional openness.

Gujin Xu stated that Beijing’s “15th Five-Year Plan” for high-end industries will soon be issued and implemented, with the core goal of establishing a globally influential emerging industry highland and future industry leader. The policy support system will break traditional support models, focusing on two dimensions: comprehensive support for all industrial factors and seamless integration of all industrial links. This includes optimizing the supply of talent, land, capital, and data, and building a full-process support system covering technological innovation, pilot testing, results transformation, quality improvement, and enterprise growth, creating a pathway from technological strength to enterprise, industry, and economic strength. Key sectors include integrated circuits, artificial intelligence, biomedicine, commercial aerospace, intelligent connected vehicles, and quantum technology. Resources will be concentrated to cultivate leading enterprises and specialized “little giant” companies within the industrial chain, forming a rational, collaborative industrial echelon.

Lin Jianhua announced Beijing’s core development goals for the 15th Five-Year Plan: an average annual growth rate of 4.5%–5% in regional GDP, maintaining R&D investment intensity above 6%, and steadily improving key urban quality indicators. The city’s 15th Five-Year Plan outline will be officially issued soon, focusing on five major dimensions: “city, industry, people, urban, safety,” to strengthen the real economy, build a “four-in-one” industrial ecosystem, and turn the blueprint into a high-quality development reality with unwavering determination.

34 projects signed on-site

Notably, 34 investment projects in Beijing were signed at the conference, totaling 61.991 billion yuan. These projects cover 13 major industry categories, with both domestic and foreign investments working together. The projects align with Beijing’s industrial development positioning, with multiple fields flourishing and key projects landing precisely in various sectors, forming an industrial investment pattern led by core sectors and coordinated across diverse fields.

Among them, five key projects in the technology services sector include smart supply chains, digital equipment, intelligent security, and digital new infrastructure. Three benchmark projects in healthcare involve high-end medical devices, digital health headquarters, and traditional Chinese medicine formulations.

According to “Huaxia Times,” a flagship project in emergency safety, China Aneng Construction Group aims to build a comprehensive emergency rescue platform for state-owned enterprises, with a signed amount of 5.47 billion yuan. This project will connect the national emergency command center with the group’s rescue forces, creating an integrated emergency resource map and decision support system, advancing digital transformation of engineering, promoting smart site management platforms, and establishing a “1 center + 8 systems + 11 modules” intelligent management system. It will realize full-process visualization and intelligent supervision of safety, quality, and progress, fully supporting the capital’s emergency response capabilities and urban safety.

Additionally, a major achievement of the Investment Beijing Conference is the signing of the first batch of key projects and the initial investment of the “Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei Entrepreneurship Investment Guidance Fund,” totaling 50 billion yuan, marking a new phase of substantive investment.

The fund’s implementation, combined with Beijing’s integrated investment promotion system, resonates in unison. Yang Beibei, Director of the Beijing Investment Promotion Service Center, introduced that the city has established an integrated service system for investment promotion at the municipal and district levels. The municipal-level investment promotion task force, established in early 2025, collaborates with 30 departments and districts to provide full-chain services for project landing. In enterprise services, the city and districts have set up “enterprise service packages” to address development needs through tailored solutions, solving bottlenecks in project implementation, construction, and operation, and enhancing corporate investment confidence and growth expectations through optimal service ecosystems.

The coordinated development of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region faces new historic opportunities. Beijing will leverage its core role in technological innovation, strengthen its radiation and industrial driving effects on Tianjin and Hebei, promote the transformation of innovation results within the region, and facilitate upstream and downstream industrial chain collaboration and cross-regional resource flow. The 50 billion yuan venture capital guidance fund will effectively address early-stage financing gaps for hard-tech projects, accelerating the formation of a collaborative development pattern with Beijing as the innovation source and Tianjin-Hebei as the industrial hub, making the region a demonstration zone for strategic emerging industries and future industry layout nationwide.

Editor: Xu Yunqian Chief Editor: Gong Peijia