Companies encouraged to participate in national projects

With private companies increasingly playing a more important role in China's economy, a pressing issue for local governments has been finding ways to encourage those companies to take part in and benefit from national development projects.

In Chongqing, an industrial park jointly built by three private companies three years ago is now a demonstration project for such cooperation for Chongqing and Sichuan province.

The Chongqing Electronic Circuit Industrial Park was built by Chongqing Yuhan Electronic Technology Co Ltd, Sichuan Lvran Technology Group and Rongchang High-tech Industrial Development Zone.

Fifty-one companies engaged in the electronic circuit sector in China's coastal areas have signed investment agreements to locate in the park, officials said.

Over 400 private companies from Chongqing and Sichuan recently attended the first summit on high-quality development and cooperation in the private economy in the Chengdu-Chongqing economic circle. The summit began in Chongqing's Rongchang district on March 31.

In January 2020, the Chengdu-Chongqing economic circle was designated a fourth national key region after the Yangtze River Delta region, the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area and the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region.

At the summit, the companies were informed about policies and developments regarding national projects, officials said. They looked for investment opportunities, exchanged ideas and signed deals for 23 projects with a total value of 31.81 billion yuan ($4.61 billion), including new energy, electronic information, equipment manufacturing and new materials.

"Sichuan has listed medicine and health as one of its six major industries, and there is great demand in the elderly care market in the two locations," said Lu Zhuangwen, chairman of Sichuan Xingrui Health Industry Group Co Ltd. Lu said he is a Chongqing native who runs the business in Sichuan. The company has invested in many traditional Chinese medicine centers and nursing homes in Sichuan and Tongnan district in Chongqing.

"In Rongchang district, enterprises are also looking for opportunities for cooperation," Lu said. Sichuan and Chongqing have built more and more platforms for private entrepreneurs to exchange information and cooperate, and policy support has also increased, giving enterprises more confidence in investment, he said.

Last October, China issued a plan to build the Chengdu-Chongqing region into an economic center with greater impact, a key hub for scientific and technological innovation, a new area for reform and opening-up and a place with high-quality living standards.

Construction of the Chengdu-Chongqing economic circle got off to a good start and achieved concrete progress in the past two years as the two jurisdictions have been integrating resources to promote the high-quality development of western China, said Luo Lin, a member of the Standing Committee and secretary-general of the CPC Chongqing Municipal Committee, at a news conference in Beijing during the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, which opened in October.

Luo said the two sides have drawn up some 20 development plans for regional integration, transportation infrastructure construction and coordinated industrial and science development.