On April 2nd, Sichuan and Chongqing governments signed a cooperation agreement to build the "Chengdu-Chongqing Economic Zone", unveiling a grand plan of Chinese government to emphasize on the development of key regions in West China. Two months later, Chengdu and Chongqing were approved to be pilot reform cities by the State Council of China, being an important part of this plan. More over, this region will be brought into the national core planning as a whole in the coming years. The Chengdu-Chongqing economic zone planned and set by National Development and Reform Commission, beside this two center cities, will encompass 14 cities of Sichuan Province and 23 counties and districts around Chongqing. There are 99.6 million residents in this area, taking up nearly 8% of the total Chinese population.
 
As pilot reform cities, Chengdu and Chongqing have been called by media the New Special Zone of China after Shenzhen, Shanghai Pudong and Tianjin Binhai. It shows that China, after 28 years of high growth rate originated from export-oriented economy, turns to focusing on expansion of domestic needs and looks for exploring a new mechanism and new mode of economic development for the coming 20 years. Chengdu and Chongqing are expected to be the area of most creativity and innovation in the next 10 years, in various fields such as economy, society, urban and rural relations, land exploitation, environmental protection and governmental functions.
 
Speaker:  
Mr. Lei Kaiping, Division Chief of Development Planning and Industry Policy of Sichuan Provincial Development & Reform Commission, who has been involved in the plan since the conception, will explain the naissance history of the series of plans and also the key domains & policy orientation of the regional development.

Event review

Before the dinner, Mr. Lei Kaiping, Division Chief of Development Planning and Industry Policy of Sichuan Provincial Development & Reform Commission, who has been involved in the plan since the conception explained the naissance history of the series of plans and also the key domains & policy orientation of the region’s development.

Introduction of Chengdu-Chongqing Economic Zone

On April 2nd, Sichuan and Chongqing governments signed a cooperation agreement to build the "Chengdu-Chongqing Economic Zone", unveiling a grand plan of Chinese government to emphasize on the development of key regions in West China. Two months later, Chengdu and Chongqing were approved to be pilot reform cities by the State Council of China, being an important part of this plan. More over, this region will be brought into the national core planning as a whole in the coming years. The Chengdu-Chongqing economic zone planned and set by National Development and Reform Commission, besides this two center cities, will encompass 14 cities of Sichuan Province and 23 counties and districts around Chongqing. There are 99.6 million residents in this area, taking up nearly 8% of the total Chinese population.
 
Goal and future of the Chengdu-Chongqing Economic Zone
 
1. Creating China’s fourth strongest economic region in China 
The two governments want to create China’s fourth growth pole along with the Pearl River Delta, Yangtze River Delta, Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei area and northeast China regions. According to Mr. Lei, the Chengdu – Chongqing Economic Zone will even surpass the 13% growth rate of the last years and might in 5 till 10 years become the first region to break through a GDP of RMB 1 trillion.  
 

2. Foster the region’s five industry bases
The Chengdu-Economic Economic Zone will take full advantage of its comparative advantage and focus cooperation and work on agriculture, clean and sustainable energy, equipment machinery, national defense and high-tech.
 
3. Promote urbanization in the region
Chengdu and Chongqing have been chosen as pilot cities, targeting coordinated rural and urban development through reforms in all sectors. The rapid urbanization (urbanization rate of 11 – 33%) in the area is challenging the Chengdu-Chongqing Economic Zone. With the rapid economic development and the increase of the living standard, more and more migrant workers and qualified staff are returning to Sichuan from the coastal regions. According to statistics, the urban population of Chengdu will increase by about 5 million people in future. This will increase the demand for housing, public services, consumption, public construction and other areas.
 
4. Foster industrialization
In order to keep pace with the fast development of the region and to promote the regional development, the Chengdu-Economic Zone will foster investment in the development of a sufficient manufacturing base, a developed service industry, including logistics, finance, insurance, accounting and tourism. The government is aware of Chengdu-Chongqing Economic Zone’s comparative cost advantage. Thus, special attention will be paid to the improvement of infrastructure and logistics in order to lower the cost of transportation in the region. It is planned to construct a new high-speed railway, which could replace the slow (160 km/h) connection between Chongqing and Chengdu. Further, the regional roads shall be connected to the national road network, thus increasing the speed of logistics.

5. Create sustainable environment
The Chengdu-Chongqing Economic Zone will be a centre of innovation for the next 10 years in China. The government has analyzed the development of other regions in China and is aware of the importance of an undamaged environment. Thus, Chengdu wants to develop and at the same time protect and keep its natural resources and beautiful environment. Mr. Lei stressed that Chengdu “does not want to go the old way of destroying nature”. 
 
6. Promote the go west policy
The reason why the central government has chosen Chengdu and Chongqing as economic zone, rather than for example Wuhan is that the government wants to strengthen the go-west policy. Further, Chengdu and Chongqing have quite good basics and growth potential in areas such as tourism, manufacturing, high-tech etc. Thus, it is very efficient and logic chose these two metropolises in West China as location for China’s fourth growth nucleus.
 
Measures and policies to achieve the above goals

1. Regional planning
Central government and regional governments together will create a plan for the development of the region. It shall be achieved that each region has its own function in the whole system. Thus, each city will have its natural protection areas, tourism areas, residential area, business area, recreational area etc. Ultimate goal of the planning is to create an efficient system with the people and their living space in the centre.

2. Land management
Both the industrialization and urbanization of the region needs land in order to develop. Even though Sichuan is one of the largest provinces in China in terms of land, but the proportion of land suitable for residence is quite constrained, because of the wide-spread mountainous areas. There are plans to introduce a new ground management and development system in order to foster sustainable growth. Each time, when a piece of land is used for construction, a new piece of land shall be developed. This system might be a model for national use.

3. Improvement of social security system
Currently, the social system is based on a personal account and a public account. The personal account could be transferred in between the different provinces and cities. Thus migrant workers will not lose their social benefits, when moving to another city or province. But the second account, the public account, could not be transferred to other provinces. At the moment, many Sichuan people are working in other provinces as Zhejiang or Shanghai and thus accumulate money on the public account of the social security system. But when these people return to Sichuan province, the public account stays in the provinces they have worked before. This puts high pressure on Sichuan province, which has to provide the former migrant workers with social services. Thus, Sichuan and Chongqing will introduce a flexible social account transfer pilot zone. First time in China, the public account of workers could be transferred in the zone, leading to more equality among the regions. 
 
4. Integration of regional markets
Further the government will deepen the integration of the regional markets, thus increasing accessibility of the market and improving the investment environment.  
Because of the limited time, Mr. Lei did not further deepen the different points. At the end he stressed, that he currently could just provide the guests with rather general information about the Chengdu-Chongqing Economic Zone. Right now, the whole project is in the starting phase and thus the government is still about to plan different measures. Anyway, he wanted to provide the guests with background information and welcomes big as well as small and middle-sized enterprises to invest in the zone.

Related

Contact