Workers install solar panels at BOE Technology in Yizhuang. Provided to China Daily

There is also an equipment manufacturing cluster that has ABB and Schneider along with the bio-engineering & new medicine cluster led by Bayer Healthcare and GE. Auto major Mercedes-Benz is championing the automobile cluster.

The four major clusters in the BDA account for 50 percent, 48 percent, 17 percent and 22 percent of their respective industry share in Beijing, BDA sources say.

"During the 12th Five-Year Plan (2011-15), the BDA will continue to support China's industrial transformation and evolve as an international high-tech industrial area," says Zhang Boxu, head of the administrative committee of BDA.

By the end of 2015, BDA is likely to more than double its existing output, Zhang says. At the same time the area's administration was merged with neighboring Daxing district government to enlarge the operational area and also set up more facilities like housing complexes, schools, shopping and entertainment centers.

"We have extended 12 sq km based on the original 48 sq km development area, and also constituted a new team to attract more foreign investors," Zhang says.

The BDA has till date attracted foreign investment of about $12 billion, and also houses several new facilities like the engine factory of automaker Beijing Benz.

But it is the old timers like Bayer Healthcare, that have been at the BDA since 1997, that have really reaped the benefits. The healthcare major has seen production at its BDA facility triple in the last 15 years.

"The BDA is not just about preferential policies, but also about people. There is a huge talent pool in the surrounding areas that we can tap into as well as the easy access to the premier research institutions," Putic says.

The Beijing plant is Bayer's first plant in China for human drug production, storage and distribution.

What also makes the BDA different from others is the unstinted support and policies the companies get from the committee that oversees the operations.

There are more than 10 tax-free and fee refund articles specifically for foreign-invested productive enterprises.

In 2009, the Beijing Institute for Drug Control set up its only associated office outside of its headquarters in the BDA, which has proved helpful for companies like Bayer Healthcare.

"In the past, we drove more than 50 km to visit the institute, but now the inspection application time and inspection costs have decreased," Putic says.

The road to advanced manufacturing, however, also calls for an exceptional pool of talent to match the growth and the BDA panel is leaving no stone unturned to help the companies with talent search programs.