Chengdu's Construction of National Central City, Openness Becomes Keyword

CHENGDU, China, March 17, 2017 /PRNewswire/ --

In May of 2016, Chinese central government clearly defined Chengdu as the "National Central City".

Chinese national central city, being of the highest urban hierarchy of the Chinese urban system, is a city with leading, radiating and gathering & distributing functions in China, which lies in various aspects such as the development of economy, science & technology, culture, foreign communication and traffic.

Chengdu, a super lager central city of West China with 16 million people, has been a resourceful land since the ancient times. With the implementation of "The Belt and Road" national strategy and the new turn of West Development, openness has become the keyword in Chengdu's construction of national central city.

Expand "Business Circle", Strengthen Industrial Support

For central city, economic development is the foundation and industrial development is the support. In recent years, Chengdu has been setting up a series of internationally cooperated industrial parks to enhance its opening-up and expanding international cooperation. Multiple international industrial parks settled down in Chengdu are becoming the premium vehicle for comprehensively improving industry level and promoting industrial transformation and upgrading.

On Nov. 2nd, 2015, the Sino-German (Sichuan Chengdu) Innovative Industry Cooperation Platform was inaugurated officially. The platform includes "one area and three parks", which means the Core Area, the Industrial Innovation Upgrading Demonstration Park, the Automobile Industry Park and the Sino-German (Pujiang) Middle and Small-Sized Enterprises Cooperation Park.

It can be concluded that the Sino-German (Sichuan Chengdu) Innovative Industry Cooperation Platform is taking its effect gradually.

In last November, at the ceremony of the 16th Western China International Fair, a lot of Germany enterprises reached cooperation with Chengdu city and the total contract amount reached 4 billion yuan, the contracts involved high-end manufacturing, research & innovation, high-end services and so on.

Till September of 2016, there were 70 Germany enterprises investing in Chengdu, and the capital in position reached 1587 million yuan, German became the third large foreign capital source of Chengdu.

The Minister of Commerce of China and the Minister of Foreign Trade Ministry of France, as witnessed by the two heads of state, signed the "Memorandum of Understanding on Ecological Park Economic & Trade Cooperation" and decided to build the Sino-France Ecological Park in Chengdu.

According to Li Hua, the officer of Chengdu Economic Development Zone, the whole Sino-France Ecological Park is currently taking the Dongfeng Peugeot Citroen Automobile Industry Base as the core, which covers a total investment of 12.3 billion yuan and a total productivity of 360 thousand cars, and is striving to promote the project in order.

Currently, Chengdu is promoting the construction of many transnational and trans-regional industrial parks such as the Sichuan-France Eco-Scientific Park, Sino-Israel Industrial Park, North Rhine Center of German, Singapore-Sichuan Hi-Tech Innovation Park, Hong Kong-Macao (Chengdu) Modern Services Industrial Park.

The accelerated construction of the parks and platforms is becoming the new advantage in Chengdu's industrial development and is injecting new impetus into the drive of constructing national central city and the international cooperation and competition.

Enlarge "Friend Network", Create Communication Convenience

In this February, Chengdu established the friendship with La Plata of Argentina in city level. Till now, Chengdu has 33 friendship cities and 44 friendly cooperation relationship cities.

The continuous expanding of "friend network" has brought about continuous enlarging of "wealth circle". In recent years, Chengdu's international "wealth circle" has been being enlarged continuously.

278 of the top 500 world companies have settled down in Chengdu, among which, there are 201 foreign enterprises; there are more than 6650 overseas-funded enterprises settled down in Chengdu. Intel, FAW-Volkswagen, Siemens...such top world brands are coincidentally enlarging their investment in Chengdu.

In the previously published rank of "Top 10 Fastest Growing Cities" by Forbes, Chengdu ranks the first.

In order to enhance the communication with the world, Chengdu is improving the function of its urban traffic hubs.

In 2016, Chengdu Shuangliu International Airport realized a passenger throughput of 46.039 million person-time, and became the fourth busiest airport in mainland China. Its international air lines have covered the important hub cities of North America, Europe, Africa, Oceania and Asia. It has 74 international and regional navigable cities with near 100 international and regional air lines.

In May of 2016, the second airport of Chengdu -- Tianfu International Airport broke ground. When it's completed, Chengdu will become the third city to have two international airports after Beijing and Shanghai.

More and more foreigners choose to live in Chengdu, the number of foreign residents has reached 20 thousand, and this number is rising every year.

In order to make a better environment for foreigners to live and work here, Chengdu municipal government launched the "Home in Chengdu" project in February of 2016.

Through one year's efforts, "Home in Chengdu" has opened English service in Mayor's public telephone number, a number of English TV and broadcasting programs are successfully launched, "A Guidebook for Foreigners Living in Chengdu" and "Comprehensive Guidelines for Foreign and Overseas Citizens in Chengdu" have been compiled and published.

The American John arrived in Chengdu in August of 2016 for the first time, and he did not plan to leave. Now, he is employed as the Director Assistant of the Tongzilin Community (Foreigner Residential Area), and he is full of expectations for the "new job".

In the new historical period, the past western basin has encountered its own opportunity and now is a highland of opening-up. In the process of constructing national central city, Chengdu is embracing the world in a more open way.

SOURCE Chengdu Municipal Government