Nine large bioengineering and pharmaceutical companies recently signed an agreement with the Daxing Industrial Development Zone to invest a total of 900 million yuan (about US$108 million) in the zone for the first-phase construction of the new industrial base.

The zone, one of the four major hi-tech parks in Beijing Municipality, will cover 2.33 sq km in the first phase. The construction of infrastructure facilities has been completed and preparations are in full swing to set up factories.

The local authorities hope that the new industrial zone will be able to generate 10 billion yuan (US$1.2 billion) in total sales in the next five years.

In recent years, Beijing has been made strenuous efforts to turn its industrial zone into China's center for hi-tech industries.

(People's Daily June 18, 2003)