Chengdu is Fully Engaged in Augmenting Its Industrial Competitiveness

CHENGDU, China, Aug. 15, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- On August 14th, the Chinese magazine Outlook Weekly published an article "Chengdu is Fully Engaged in Augmenting its Industrial Competitiveness", it makes a deep analysis of the work by  Chengdu in building National Central City and reconstructing new industrial economy. Some excerpts are as follows.

On July 2nd, the National Central City Industrial Development Conference was held in Chengdu, China. The primary venue and 22 sub-venues welcomed participants that ranged from top policy-makers of different levels of the municipal government to main leaders of various municipal-level organs, from renowned foreign corporations in Chengdu to notable local enterprises, from scientific research institutions to industry associations, from expert scholars to start-up elites, the level of sophistication and the size of participants are testaments to the extraordinary caliber of this event.

In 2016, Chengdu was officially named by the central government of China as a National Central City, becoming the sixth metropolis to receive this title after Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjin, Guangzhou and Chongqing. From the perspective of the city's leadership, in order to fortify Chengdu's position as a National Central City, solid support from the industries is indispensable.

"Both domestic and foreign urban development practices have shown that the ability for a city to remain at the 'pinnacle' of the system of global cities is vested in the resolve of the national strategy as well as the city's comprehensive competitiveness, in particular industrial competitiveness," a main Chengdu leader emphasized.

Chengdu has successively nurtured six industry clusters valued at the hundred billion yuan-level, such as the electronic information cluster and the automotive one. Chengdu became one of ten Chinese cities to post GDP above one trillion RMB, and completed a "triple jump" from a provincial capital to a regional central city, and further to a National Central City.

"The National Central City occupies the highest status in the administrative hierarchy of national urban system, and is a necessary stepping stone toward the echelon of world-class metropolis.  The main goal of such a city is to serve the entire nation," explained Yang Yu, Director of the Chengdu Development and Reform Commission, adding that the rise of a great metropolis is essentially the rise of a city's function, and if no improvement in city function materializes, no metropolis will emerge.

On July 12, the "50 new industrial policies" of Chengdu, also known as Suggestions on Numerous Policies and Measures for Supply of Innovation Key Factors, Cultivation of Industrial Ecology and Enhancement of National Central City Industrial Capacity," was officially published. Revolving around the overall objectives of strengthening system, optimizing ecology, underscoring implementation and augmenting capacity, a series of targeted and emphatic measures and policies were introduced. These 50 measures and policies in 13 categories included assembly and cultivation of human resources, supply of innovative technologies, assurance of land resources, support from data resources, reduction in energy expenditure, lowering logistics costs, minimizing costs system-related trades, optimization of industrial ecology, strengthening industry entities, advocating enterprises to "go abroad," and optimizing internationalized business.

Among the above policies, there are eye-catching ones in terms of innovative supply of human resources. They are not only listed at the top, but also the most beneficial and pragmatic ones.

For instance, a new policy specifies that for talents with annual income over RMB 500,000 and employed in the real economy sector or new economy sector within the city limit, a reward calculated based on the person's contribution and at a maximum of 5% of annual personal income may be given; for young talents with Bachelor's degree or above conferred by a full-time program from a regular university, a Chengdu residence status can be obtained with the corresponding graduation diploma; for those that have lived in rented talent apartment provided by the government for more than five years, based on one's contribution, the apartment may be purchased at a price no higher than the market price at the time of the beginning of inhabitance.

"Whether it is the competition of cities or the contest of industries, the key is vying for human resources." From the viewpoint of Ding Xiaobin, Director of the Chengdu Investment Promotion Commission. 

Chengdu declares the arrival of a new round of great industrial development with a monumental industry development conference. This grand plan of industrial development provides not only tremendous space for imagination in terms of the future life of locals, but also massive space for growth of business elites, investors, and a diverse array of innovative and entrepreneurial talents from across the globe.

SOURCE Outlook Weekly