Beijing now offers permanent residency at a group discount of HK$125m

It's official, writes the Beijing Daily, that a hukou in the city can now be had by senior executives (and their immediate family members) of companies willing to invest at least 100 million yuan (HK$124.6 mln), or US$10 mln (HK$77.6 mln) for foreign capital investors.

According to the report, 45 individuals affiliated with 14 separate firms were granted permanent residency in Beijing last year.

Zhou Weimin, director of the Beijing Investment Promotion Bureau, says his organisation was given the power to issue hukous last year, currently extended only to chairpersons, vice-presidents, and the chief accountants, engineers or economists of sufficiently invested firms or top managers of their subsidiaries.

Directors of R&D bodies established by corporate investors are also eligible under the scheme.

Zhou said Beijing received US$6.86 billion (HK$53.2 bln) in registered capital and US$6.37 billion (HK$49.4 bln) in foreign investment contracts between 466 projects brokered through the program in 2012, in addition to 26.6 billion yuan (HK$33.15 bln) received through 623 domestic investment projects.

Prior to 2012, a Beijing hukou could only be legally obtained through the city's labour and social security bureau.