As the supply-side structural reform picks up steam, the new economy featureing new industries, new business forms and models, has largely driven Beijing's economic growth. Beijing Municipal Bureau of Statistics announced that, in 2017, the new economy in Beijing generated 908.6 billion yuan (US$144.3 billion) of added value, an increase of 9.8 percent over the previous year. The number accounted for 32.4 percent of Beijing's GDP, an increase of 0.2 percentage points year-on-year.
On Feb. 1, the first production line of 6-inch silicon carbide in China launch in Yizhuang, which the city hailed as the mark of significant progress in producing semiconductor materials. Beijing officials said it would benefit industries such as aerospace, new energy automobile and rail transportation.
In 2017, high-tech manufacturing and strategic new industries contributed nearly 50 percent of industrial growth, according to the Municipal Bureau of Statistics. In the industries above a designated scale, the economic growth of high-tech manufacturing reached 13.6 percent, 8 percentage points higher than the average growth rate. The growth of strategic new industries was 12.1 percent, 6.5 percentage points higher than the average. In particular, the increases for the energy-saving and environmental protection industry and the biomedicine industry were 25 percent and 17.8 percent respectively. The production of smart TV and smart phones grew 64.3 percent and 9.5 percent respectively, leading the development of strategic new industries.
The past year has seen further integration of the internet and the real economy, with online retail becoming a powerhouse of consumer markets. The online retail sales (of wholesale and retail industries above designated level) totaled 237.1 billion yuan, an increase of 10.9 percent year-on-year. Online sales took up 20.5 percent of the entire retail sales volume, 5.5 percent points higher than the national average; the growth of online sales accounted for over 40 percent of the overall growth in retail. In 2017, express delivery services handled nearly 2.27 billion parcels, rendering a yearly increase of 16 percent.
The restaurant industry also benefited from the internet. The revenue gained through online food sales by above-scale restaurants and enterprises was 8.6 billion yuan, accomplishing a growth of 39.8 percent and contributing 37.8 percent of the growth of food sales in Beijing.
Beijing has standardized its financial information services industry since 2017, which reaped 6.29 billion yuan last year, an increase of 35.1 percent year-on-year. The proceeds of non-financial payment services were 21.6 billion yuan, which was a 62.7 percent increase.
The internet also helps enliven the traditional culture sector. In 2017, cultural and creative industries generated 390.9 billion yuan of added value, accounting for 14 percent of Beijing's GDP and an increase of 9.2 percent over the previous year. Specifically, the growth rates in tourism, design services, and software and computer services all surpassed 12 percent.
Last year, 194,000 new enterprises opened in Beijing, and 70,000, or 36.3 percent of the total, were science and technology services enterprises. By the end of 2017, Beijing had over 400 startup service providers such as maker spaces, incubators, accelerators and university science parks, taking up over 6 million square meters of real estate and serving more than 30,000 businesses and groups. The deepened integration of the internet and the economy had gradually become a key propeller of Beijing's economic transition.