Companies encouraged to participate in national projects

A report to the 20th CPC National Congress cited the importance of boosting the private economy and optimizing the business environment.

Guided by local governments, more private companies have been looking for business opportunities that can be found in national plans.

Rongchang, known as China's animal husbandry science and technology base and a major connecting point in the Chengdu-Chongqing circle, has shown a strong edge in boosting the private economy, which accounts for 80 percent of the district's GDP, officials said.

Last year, Sichuan's private economy accounted for 53.7 percent of the province's GDP, while in Chongqing, the figure was 59.7 percent, according to the local government reports.

Chongqing, on the upper reaches of the Yangtze River, is also the headquarters of the China-Singapore (Chongqing) Demonstration Initiative on Strategic Connectivity, which was launched in 2016. That initiated the New International Land-Sea Trade Corridor project in a bid to speed up the opening-up and development of China's western region, officials said. It connects Europe with Southeast Asia, with Chongqing as a key rail hub, and now reaches 393 ports in 119 countries and regions.

In the past, goods from China's landlocked western regions endured a roundabout trip to reach outside areas. The situation began to change five years ago, when the trade corridor was launched, cutting previous journey time to a large extent, officials said.

One of the beneficiaries of the change was Chongqing Shangcheng Apparel Group, according to its CEO, Li Bin. Li's company, established in Rongchang in 2018, was a small enterprise that mainly manufactured and exported clothing.

Thanks to national development plans and a sound business environment, Shangcheng now exports about 30 million articles of clothing each year to dozens of countries in Europe, the Americas, Southeast Asia and Africa. It provides over 2,000 jobs and its annual sales have reached some 1 billion yuan.

Last year, companies in Rongchang district, including Shangcheng, Chongqing Qiaqia Food Co, Chongqing Zhaohong Agricultural Development Co and Huida Sanitary Ware Co Ltd, exported more than 1,500 containers of goods abroad via the China-Europe express rail, the land-sea trade corridor and the Yangtze River, a 30 percent increase year-on-year, according to the deputy director of Rongchang's commission of commerce, Hu Zhongkun.