Agricultural Bank of China opens a branch at the Beijing section of the Daxing Airport Area in May. [Photo provided by China Daily] 

The Beijing section of the Daxing Airport Area, part of the China (Hebei) Pilot Free Trade Zone, has attracted more companies and stimulated new economic growth since its establishment in Aug 2019.

Covering 119.97 square kilometers, the China (Hebei) Pilot Free Trade Zone has four areas－Xiong'an, Zhengding, Caofeidian and Beijing Daxing International Airport－and is located on the border of the capital's southern Daxing district and Langfang in Hebei.

The Beijing section of the Daxing Airport Area, covering 9.97 sq km, will mainly feature aviation logistics, aviation technology and financial leasing businesses, and become a demonstration area for the coordinated development of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region.

It embraces the Daxing airport, which is located 46 km south of Tian'anmen Square, 65 km northeast of Xiong'an New Area and 75 km northwest of Tianjin.

The advantages of its location, convenient transport and fast customs clearance attracted courier company SF Express. It was one of the first companies to set up a branch in the Beijing section of the free trade zone.

SF Express first opened Beijing air routes in 2011 and set up a base at Beijing Capital International Airport in 2015. An executive of SF Express, quoted by Beijing Business Today, said: "It is suitable for the development of airfreight to rely on the Daxing airport hub, and the Beijing section of the free trade zone provides many trade facilitation policies, such as for customs and ports."

After Beijing Daxing International Airport was approved in 2014 and construction of the free trade zone began, opening-up has become an inevitable trend in the Beijing section of the Daxing Airport Area.

According to the local government, the Beijing section of the free trade zone had attracted 134 market entities as of August, including five foreign-funded companies. The total registered capital of these companies is 13.2 billion yuan ($1.9 billion).

These companies have witnessed the latest policy innovations in the Daxing Airport Area of the China (Hebei) Pilot Free Trade Zone and will enjoy the dividends of the reform, the local government said.

On July 8, Beijing Leyi, a foreign-invested e-commerce company in the free trade zone took advantage of the streamlined business services at Agricultural Bank of China's Beijing branch. It took only one day to complete the sales and payment under cross-border services, which had needed a week previously. The transaction was the first cross-border financial trade in the Beijing section of the Daxing Airport Area.

With more companies trading abroad and needing foreign exchange settlement, and high-tech companies and e-commerce platforms settling in the area, ABC's new branch opened in the Beijing section of the free trade zone in May.

According to Deng Haijun, head of the bank branch, this is the first bank to feature free trade in the area.

The Beijing department of the State Administration of Foreign Exchange established rules for the electronic audit of trade in goods and the facilitation of foreign exchange for capital projects in free trade zones in February. This provides convenience to the companies there.

Continuous optimization of the business environment and system innovation have always been the core task of the free trade zone, the local government said.

Daxing, which previously was only associated with fruit cultivation and the heavy machinery industry, has come a long way to become an emerging international air hub in the past 10 years, local officials said.

caoyingying@chinadaily.com.cn