Beijing has secured the second position globally in the 2025 Global Digital Economy Leading Cities Index, marking an enhancement in its benchmark leadership role. This information was disclosed during a press conference on the development of global digital economy benchmark cities held on February 28. Li Hui, a member of the Party Leadership Group and Deputy Director of the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Economy and Information Technology, reported that in 2025, Beijing achieved both quantitative growth and qualitative improvement in advancing its status as a global digital economy hub. The value-added output of the city's digital economy surpassed 2.4 trillion yuan, reflecting an 8.7% year-on-year increase and a nearly 60% growth compared to 2020. The proportion of the digital economy's value-added output in Beijing's GDP reached 46.4%, an increase of 7.4 percentage points from 2020.
The frequent appearance of humanoid robots during the 2026 CCTV Spring Festival Gala reignited widespread public discussion on embodied intelligence. Li Hui stated that the notable presence of two companies, Beijing Yinhe Tongyong and Songyan Dongli, not only represented significant milestones for the enterprises but also showcased the phased achievements of Beijing's development philosophy for the embodied intelligence industry, which centers on "serving human needs."
The year 2026 marks the beginning of the 15th Five-Year Plan period, and Beijing has introduced more concrete measures to bolster its construction as a global digital economy benchmark city. Li Hui detailed that Beijing has formulated the "Key Tasks for Building a Global Digital Economy Benchmark City in 2026" to accelerate progress across various initiatives. The plan emphasizes focusing on key areas such as large-scale AI models, fully autonomous technology stacks, 6G, quantum information, and virtual reality to generate more world-class scientific research outcomes. It aims to propel the performance of multiple types of large models into the top tier globally.
Furthermore, the key tasks outline a strategy to seize the high ground in the embodied intelligence industry. This includes launching market-leading new humanoid robot models, establishing a Robot Innovation Park in the Beijing Olympic Center Area, continuously upgrading the Yizhuang Robot World, and promoting the integration of robotics with daily life and ecological systems.
Li Hui also mentioned that Beijing will coordinate the development of training grounds for embodied intelligent robots. This involves opening up real-world scenarios and innovating data collection technologies to provide the embodied intelligence industry with high-quality, massive datasets. Support will be provided for exploring multiple technological pathways for general-purpose embodied intelligence models, aiming to create intelligent "brains" capable of logical thinking, perception, and decision-making, as well as agile "small brains" that can autonomously perform various tasks.
Concurrently, Beijing plans to host events such as a humanoid robot half-marathon and a World Humanoid Robot Games, offering platforms to test innovative achievements and accelerate technological iteration. Additionally, adhering to an open-source and open development approach, the city will promote the construction of public industrial infrastructure, including robot secondary development communities and robot 4S stores, to establish a dynamic and service-oriented benchmark industrial ecosystem. Beijing will also pioneer a "one robot, one code" management pilot for humanoid robots, leading exploration into technical methods and operational mechanisms for the full lifecycle safety governance of embodied intelligent robots.