The Beijing Central Business District (CBD) is a window for international exchanges between China and the world, and a development base for the nation's headquarters economy and modern services.

The CBD is home to almost 90 percent of Beijing’s international media organizations, 80 percent of the city's international organizations and international chambers of commerce, 80 percent of the multinational corporate regional headquarters, 70 percent of Beijing-based Fortune 500 corporations, 70 percent of the world's international financial organizations and about 30 percent of the five-star hotels in the city. With frequent international exchanges and multicultural communications, the registered foreign population in the area is close to 44,000. In 2011, about 50 percent of international conferences and 90 percent of the international business exhibitions in Beijing were held here. Since 2009, Beijing has engaged in eastward expansion for the CBD that will cover 3.05 million square meters, prioritizing development of the headquarters economy, international finance and high-end businesses to make it the capital’s modern high end business district.

By February 2012, there had been 1,470 above-designated-size modern service organizations in the CBD, accounting for 26.5 percent of total above-designated-size modern service organizations in the Chaoyang district (Above-designated-size enterprises are those with annual revenues from their main businesses equal to or more than 20 million yuan ($3.1 million)); combined revenues were 38.1 billion yuan ($5.9 billion), accounting for 38.9 percent of Chaoyang district's total revenues, a year-on-year growth rate of 15 percent; the growth rate of their combined revenues was 1.9 percentage points higher than the growth rate of Chaoyang district's total revenues; they contributed 43.8 percent to the growth of Chaoyang district's modem tertiary industry income, generating combined profits of 4.18 billion yuan ($647 million) with a year-on-year growth of 54.2 percent, 31.8 percentage points higher than that of Chaoyang district's total modern tertiary industry profit; they contributed 47.1 percent to the growth of Chaoyang district's total modem service industry profit.