In April 2025 the Beijing Economic-Technological Development Area (E-Town) issued its 2025 implementation plan for building a city-wide artificial intelligence district. After a dense run of municipal-level documents, a functional district writing AI into the main line of regional development is itself a signal worth watching.
The “one model, one plan; one industry, one policy” mechanism
The plan proposes to proceed on a “one model, one plan; one industry, one policy” basis: matching different models and different solutions to different industries, rather than covering every company with a single general policy. Policy designed at that granularity means implementation requires companies and the competent authorities to align item by item, on specific scenarios and specific model capabilities.
For an AI company, the value of such a mechanism is that it turns “policy” into a negotiable, concrete project rather than a universal document.
Three quantifiable annual targets
The plan sets three numbers for the end of 2025: 100 landmark AI application scenarios opened to society, 600 core companies in the AI industry chain clustered, and an AI industry scale exceeding RMB 80 billion.
The three numbers correspond to the scenario side, the entity side and the scale side. “Opening 100 scenarios” is the most operational part of the package: it releases demand-side resources held by government and state-owned enterprises and becomes an entry point for companies seeking real data.
From giving subsidies to giving scenarios
Earlier local AI policies relied mainly on financial subsidies. Shanghai’s AI application subsidy supports compute, models and corpora, and the Shenzhen government AI scenario fund pulls the industry along through a fund vehicle. The E-Town plan instead puts the emphasis on opening scenarios, supported by directions such as building a 100-billion-yuan core AI industry cluster and accelerating the aggregation and circulation of high-quality data. Beijing’s own action plan for software firms’ AI application capability works through compute and model vouchers.
The three instruments are not mutually exclusive, but they point to different types of company: subsidies favour early-stage research, funds favour growth-stage financing, and scenario opening favours companies that already have a mature product and need a real setting to validate it.
Three implications for AI companies
First, treat the scenario list as an input to the product roadmap. Open scenarios mean demand is disclosed in advance, and a company can adjust product priorities accordingly.
Second, watch the stacking effect of regional policies. See Beijing’s plan for AI-enabled industrial modernisation and Hangzhou’s plan for an AI innovation highland; in the same period different cities weigh scenarios, compute and data differently, and companies operating across regions have to adapt to each.
Third, distinguish commitments from enforceable provisions. The target figures in a regional plan are largely directional; when signing an agreement or applying for support, a company should still rely on the specific operating rules and fund management measures.
Competition among local policies will ultimately come down to who can offer companies more genuine demand and more stable rules.
This article is based on the Beijing Economic-Technological Development Area’s 2025 implementation plan for a city-wide artificial intelligence district and public information and is for reference only; it does not constitute legal advice.