General

This year, Beijing's first overseas economic and trade exhibition group went to Belgium and the United Arab Emirates in March. Next, the Beijing Council for the Promotion of International Trade will organize groups to visit Latin America, ASEAN, Japan, South Korea, and other regions.

Recently, Zhang Xiufeng, deputy director of the Beijing Council for the Promotion of International Trade, said in an exclusive interview with reporters that, as international personnel exchanges gradually returned to normal, the overseas investment and exhibition which had been suspended for three years due to the impact of the COVID-19 is about to enter the "fast lane". In the second half of the year, the Beijing Council for the Promotion of International Trade will continue to carry out the "going out" investment promotion activities to help Beijing's foreign trade enterprises explore the international trade market and attract foreign enterprises to invest in Beijing.

Since the beginning of this year, Beijing's foreign trade development has continued to accelerate. According to statistics from Beijing Customs, in the first quarter of this year, the Beijing region achieved an international trade import and export of 899.24 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 11.6%, which is 6.8 percentage points higher than the national import and export growth rate during the same period. It has the largest contribution rate to the national foreign trade growth, reaching 20.8%, achieving a "good start". From some foreign trade enterprises that the reporter visited recently, it can also be seen that everyone has mustered up enthusiasm and seized the opportunity to seize international trade orders.

Foreign funded enterprises prefer face-to-face communication

At present, the Beijing Sino Japanese Innovation Cooperation Demonstration Zone located in Daxing has added over 2000 registered entities and 279 key projects, including 72 foreign-funded enterprises such as China's first Japanese sole proprietorship fund SoftAsia Xinchuang, as well as 60 international innovation projects such as Enli Power, a solid-state battery enterprise jointly established by Japan's "father of lithium batteries" Kanno, and signed contracts with 67 international investment channels such as Straits Star and France, Becoming an important carrier for the agglomeration and development of international trade enterprises in the capital.

In the past three years, we have adopted online channels to connect with many project parties. With the normalization of personnel exchanges, more and more project parties have directly come to the park to communicate and exchange with us face-to-face. "Zhang Lei, the deputy general manager of the platform company responsible for operating the China Japan demonstration zone, introduced that after the end of this year, the team's investment coordination work will be overwhelmed. In April of this year alone, seven or eight economic and trade delegations from Japan visited the park for inspection, distributed in industries such as finance, intelligent manufacturing, medicine and health, and digital economy. Some South Korean companies also expressed great anticipation of conducting on-site research in the demonstration area as soon as possible.

Zhang Lei stated that "face-to-face communication" is an efficient communication method recognized by foreign-funded enterprises. Foreign-funded enterprises still prefer "seeing is believing". Some projects have been delayed in online communication before, and offline face-to-face communication quickly leads to a cooperation intention. For example, in the first half of this year, two projects from Japan and Sweden conducted on-site inspections and learned about the demonstration effects and innovation policies of Beijing and Daxing, and immediately confirmed their landing in the park. These two projects have undergone multiple online negotiations during the pandemic. After conducting research, another Taiwanese company has also decided to relocate some of its sectors to the China Japan Demonstration Zone.

The reporter learned that in March of this year, the China Japan Demonstration Zone also participated in Beijing's first economic and trade delegation to Belgium and the United Arab Emirates, launching a new round of "going global" investment promotion. This investment promotion trip had in-depth communication with the Bi-China Economic and Trade Association, the Belgian Ministry of Flemish Culture, the Chinese Chamber of Commerce in the United Arab Emirates, the Abu Dhabi Investment Office, and other organizations, as well as with the Abu Dhabi Residents' Office (ADRO), the UAE Sovereign Fund, and the Hub71 Accelerator G42 Group has held discussions and invited overseas enterprises to invest and develop in Beijing.

Zhang Lei introduced that in the process of communication with enterprises, everyone is generally concerned about the construction of a "two-way communication" platform. It not only requires attracting high-end talents such as international enterprises, internationally renowned scientists, industry experts, and domestic and foreign returnees to land and start businesses, but also needs to establish a "two-way communication mechanism" for excellent domestic enterprises to explore markets overseas.

In addition, by visiting and inspecting global demonstration parks such as Belgium and the United Arab Emirates, one can firsthand feel that a good industrial development environment and high-quality supporting services are necessary conditions for attracting enterprises to land and talent entrepreneurship. At present, the supporting facilities and basic environmental conditions around the China Japan Demonstration Zone have enormous potential compared to international advanced parks. The park will strengthen dialogue and exchange with international parks, learn from their development models, build livable and convenient living environments, and create urban microcenters with job and living balance and international characteristics, providing development opportunities and fertile soil for foreign-funded enterprises.

Only by going global can we understand where the industry gap lies

In March, the first economic and trade group in Beijing went abroad to attract investment, and a cooperation intention was reached for the English language animation project of Yingtian Film and Television.

"The COVID-19 has a huge impact on the film and television industry. For example, several programs that we have cooperated with CCTV have been affected in the external shooting. The early model of the second film that we are producing, Ripo Planet, has been developed. Affected by the domestic and Spanish epidemic, the production of mid-term animation has been stagnant." said Jiang Yingtian, the founder of Beijing Yingtian Film and Television Culture Co., Ltd.

In 2018, Yingtian Film and Television signed a contract for five Sino foreign co produced animated films, including "Ripple Planet", at the 8th International Film Festival. "Bike Story" is the first film on the "the Belt and Road" and also a film on environmental protection. Implanted with Chinese elements such as Chinese architecture, Jiayuguan, Crescent Spring, and traditional folk music, the film has been released in more than 40 countries and regions including Spain, Russia, Ukraine, Türkiye, South Korea, and Vietnam in 2019, and has achieved very good reputation and achievements. Affected by the epidemic, the film has been delayed in China.

Jiang Yingtian stated that animation knows no borders, and in recent years, China has frequently expanded international trade cooperation in the animation field, Chinese animation technology is not lagging behind. For example, works such as "Princess Iron Fan", "Da Nao Tian Gong", and "Nezha Nao Hai" have had a significant impact in the world, and can also be said to be the pinnacle of Chinese national animation. On the other hand, in recent years, our creative design, especially in the original animation design, is still slightly inferior to overseas. Drawing on strengths and complementing weaknesses, there is a great foundation and space for cooperation between China and foreign countries

In March of this year, Yingtian Film and Television was also invited to participate in the first economic and trade delegation to Belgium and the United Arab Emirates, which deeply touched Jiang Yingtian. In recent years, there are still many areas worth learning from in the development of animation creativity in countries such as Europe and America. In addition, I have also seen some original works from China being popular on the international stage. "Jiang Yingtian said," Original animations such as "Da Nao Tian Gong" and "Nezha Nao Hai", as well as comic works such as "Kong Yiji" and "Ah Q Zheng Zhuan", have received attention at exhibitions, The sculpture, based on the prototype of Sanmao's manga from "Sanmao Wandering", is placed in the center of the second floor of the Belgian Comic Museum. In the eyes of foreigners, Sanmao embodies the intelligent, tenacious, optimistic, humorous and humorous side of the Chinese people, and this sculpture in the exhibition hall has also become a popular check-in point on the internet. At the Elge Museum in Belgium, the focus was on the arrival of "The Adventures of Tintin" in China, as well as the exchange and development of animation between the two countries.

But at the Middle East Film and Television Animation Exhibition held in Abu Dhabi, Chinese products and elements were relatively few, while Japanese and Korean products accounted for over 60%. This also indicates that more animation or related enterprises should increase their efforts to 'go global'. Only by going global can we truly understand the gap and shortcomings between domestic and international industries. Strengthening communication and exchange is also beneficial for Chinese animation and related enterprises to expand in the international market, "said Jiang Yingtian.

The optimization and adjustment of the COVID-19 prevention and control policy has also brought many benefits to the animation industry. Many of the large-scale programs we produce have been filmed; most of the outdoor filming can also proceed normally, "he said." Bicycle Story "has already started the preliminary preparations for its release in China. The mid-term production of "The Planet of Ripo" has also begun. This is a film that combines science fiction and environmental protection, incorporating elements such as the Beijing Xishan Yongdinghe Cultural Belt, the Great Wall Cultural Belt, and Chinese Kung Fu, cuisine, and Hanfu. At the same time, the national intangible cultural heritage, landforms, and Yongdinghe Culture of Mentougou have also been incorporated into animated films to assist in the export and promotion of the Xishan Yongdinghe Cultural Belt. In addition, the 3D TV cartoon "Young Laozi" jointly produced by Yingtian Film and Television is ready to be pushed to Arabic speaking countries in the Middle East and North Africa to tell Chinese stories in world languages, which is also a key project of "going out" of animation works reflecting Chinese traditional culture. "It can be said that the business volume in these months has increased by at least 70% compared with that during the epidemic period, and has basically recovered to the level of 80% in 2019."