Development milestone achieved as economy continues to grow

Chengdu, as a key part of the twin-city economic circle in the Chengdu-Chongqing region, reached an economic aggregate of 2.08 trillion yuan ($304.9 billion) in 2022, which is equivalent to the national GDP of Chile. Chengdu is the seventh city on the Chinese mainland to join the 2-trillion-yuan GDP club.

Relying on its international airports and railway hubs, Chengdu has continued to expand its channels for opening-up and focused on building cooperative platforms to boost its economy.

As an inland city not reliant on borders or seas, its trade via air transport has accounted for more than 70 percent of its total import and export volume in recent years. In 2022, the passenger throughput of the Chengdu Shuangliu International Airport and Chengdu Tianfu International Airport reached 31.09 million, ranking first nationwide. Chengdu Tianfu International Airport has been put into operation for one year and won the title of Skytrax five-star airport, the fourth in China and the first in Southwest China.

Through its two major international airports — Chengdu Shuangliu International Airport and Chengdu Tianfu International Airport — the city is vigorously developing its airport economy.

Xie Ling, general manager of Southwest China branch of CBRE, a global commercial real estate service and investment company, said: "Chengdu plays an active role in China's opening-up to the outside world. Relying on its two airports, Chengdu has a competitive advantage to participate in the global division of labor and develop high value-added industries."

On Jan 29, the Sichuan Provincial Development and Reform Commission issued the Chengdu Tianfu Airport Economic Zone Construction Plan. The Chengdu Tianfu Airport Economic Zone, which will consolidate the city's own advantages in the national civil aviation pattern, is positioned as the core hub of the Chengdu-Chongqing world-class airport group and a highland for innovation and development of the airport industry.

In the core area of the Chengdu Tianfu Airport Economic Zone, the 9.3-square-kilometer international airport economic zone known as Eastern New Area has developed industrial clusters of aviation logistics, maintenance and manufacturing as well as consumption. Chengdu Eastern New Area has introduced a large number of projects.

Chengdu Eastern New Area is also accelerating the construction of a demonstration base for airport science and technology innovation and manufacturing. As the first of its kind in the country, the Civil Aviation Science and Technology Innovation Demonstration Zone project with a total investment of more than 10 billion yuan, will build a world-class innovation platform and a major technical equipment research and development center.

The first domestic Airbus A321 passenger-to-cargo conversion project from Sichuan Airlines has been completed and put into operation. Hymson Laser Technology Group, a leading enterprise in laser intelligent equipment manufacturing, signed a contract to set up its western headquarters base in the area.

In the Jianyang economic industrial park, which is 3 kilometers from the Chengdu Tianfu International Airport, ZTO Express' largest regional headquarters project in China is expected to be completed by the end of the year.

With a total investment of 2 billion yuan, the project plans to build main bodies of R&D, e-commerce business incubation and aviation centers and other supporting facilities. "After the project is completed and put into operation, large-scale and highly automated facilities and equipment will be used to further improve the efficiency of express delivery, promote the development of e-commerce, reduce costs of logistics and help the high-quality development of the local economy and society," said an executive of the Sichuan branch of ZTO Express.

The park is also home to many other logistics projects, including Yunda Express' e-commerce headquarters base, Cainiao Network warehouse, Shentong Express' Southwest headquarters and Vipshop's Southwest project.

Xie said international freight trains departing from the Chengdu International Railway Port, which run through Europe and Asia, will further help the city to boost opening-up. "International trains have great advantages in timeliness and stability, which can save a lot of time and cost for enterprises."

As the country's first national-level economic development zone established on the basis of a railway port, the Chengdu International Railway Port Economic and Technological Development Zone will optimize and strengthen the hub function while supporting an open industrial system.

The zone has gathered national-level platforms for opening-up such as free trade zones, comprehensive bonded zones, national economic development zones and national logistics hubs. It has built an international trade and transportation path that runs through Europe and Asia.

International freight trains have made about 20,000 trips from the Chengdu International Railway Port, with container handling capacities reaching 1.5 million 20-foot equivalent units a year. And the value of inbound and outbound cargo exceeds 100 billion yuan.

Chengdu International Railway Port mainly lays out the three leading industries of international supply chain, global trade and port-side intelligent manufacturing. It has introduced 200 projects with a total investment of more than 120 billion yuan.

"The production line of the enterprise is running 24 hours a day, and in the new year, we must speed up the production to meet the needs of overseas markets," said an executive of TCL Optoelectronics Technology (Chengdu) in the Comprehensive Bonded Zone of Chengdu International Railway Port. He said 83 percent of the company's products are exported to European countries and regions such as the United Kingdom and Russia. In recent years, overseas orders have continued to grow. With the help of the logistics advantages of the China-Europe Railway Express, a batch of products are sent abroad almost every week.

The Chengdu-Eurasia National (Commodity) Pavilion located in the Chengdu International Railway Port has built 32 commodity pavilions including ones for Germany, France, Italy and Belarus. It has built a two-way exchange platform for commodity exhibitions, experiences and cultural exchanges in countries and regions involved in the Belt and Road Initiative. The annual transaction volume of imported commodities exceeds 1 billion yuan.

Chengdu is building cooperation parks between China and France, Germany, Singapore, Italy, South Korea and Japan and other cooperation carriers such as comprehensive bonded areas and business and innovation centers to strengthen the agglomeration of high-end resources.

Chengdu has established economic and trade relations with 228 countries and regions around the world, and built sister-city relations or friendly cooperative relations with more than 100 cities. According to data from the Chengdu investment promotion bureau, Chengdu's foreign direct investment reached $2.59 billion in 2022, ranking first in the midwest of China. A total of 315 Fortune Global 500 companies have set up operations in Chengdu.