Xi'an, capital of Northwest China's Shaanxi province, was selected as the best model city for China's building economy – also known as the headquarters economy – at the recent 2022 Beijing Forum on the China Building Economy, held at the 10th China International Fair for Trade in Services.

In addition, the city's Beilin and Weiyang districts were selected in the list of the top 30 districts for China's building economy.

The building economy is one of the important pillar sectors driving economic development in Xi'an. [Photo/Xi'an municipal government's WeChat account]

What the building economy does is to accelerate the integration of buildings and business districts, urban complexes, entrepreneurial city blocks, industrial parks and other sectors – to achieve the aggregation of industries, capital, talent and information. This forms a group of commercial buildings with dynamic industrial functions.

In the first half of 2022, the total stock of Grade A office buildings in Xi'an had a combined floor space of 2.11 million square meters, with an additional supply of 102,000 sq m, according to a report.

Estimates are that in the next three years, new supplies in the Xi'an office market will exceed 1 million sq m. As such, the building economy has become one of the important pillars driving economic development in Xi'an.

In order to promote the development of the building economy, the Xi'an Building Economy Promotion Association was established in 2020.

The Xi'an's service industry development plan for the 14th Five-Year Plan period (2021-25) put forward the task of advancing the building economy to a high quality.

A sweeping view of Xi'an at sunset. [Photo/Xi'an municipal government's WeChat account]

Xi'an's Beilin district, in particular, has strongly committed itself to developing the building economy. As of June this year, it had built 113 commercial buildings above a designated size, with a total construction area of more than 5.8 million sq m.

The district has become one of the areas with the most intensive building resources in Xi'an and the average benefit per mu (0.07 hectare) is said to rank first in Northwest China.

Meanwhile, Weiyang district has also focused on the building economy in recent years. It has strengthened the integration of resources, optimized its industrial structure and introduced incentive policies.

Weiyang has established a building economic promotion association, formulated a three-year development plan and constructed two buildings with a tax revenue of over 50 million yuan ($7.22 million).