Province to cash in on its location

Sichuan's important position in China's national strategies along with its unique advantages gives it an advantage over other regions looking to become a core economic engine in West China.

Sichuan is an important province in the central government's West China Development Project and a crucial intersection point of China's Belt and Road and Yangtze River Economic Belt strategies.

Experts have pointed to the province's ability to take advantage of these strategies to export more of its competitive industries and attract talents, technology and investment from abroad, which it needs in order to restructure its economy and upgrade its industries.

Last year, Sichuan's trade volume with the countries and regions related to the Belt and Road Initiative was $13.83 billion, with investment from them increasing two-fold year-on-year. Sichuan's investment in those countries was $880 million, nearly three times that of the previous year.

The central government approved plans to build the Tianfu New Zone in Sichuan's provincial capital Chengdu as a national level new zone in October 2014 to attract emerging industries, research and development, innovation and investment.

The central government approved Sichuan's comprehensive innovation reform pilot plan on July 4. The province is the only one of the four provincial regions that submitted the plan required by the central authority to accelerate the merging of military and civil industries, because of its strong military industry.

From 2011 to 2015, Chengdu was home to 15 consulates, behind only Beijing and Shanghai in terms of number, and had 85 international air routes to the world's major cities and regions.

Among the world's top 500 enterprises on the list of Fortune magazine, 299 have investment in Sichuan. The province has attracted accumulated investment of 4.1 trillion yuan from the rest of the Chinese mainland, and $53.25 billion in foreign investment.

In the past five years, Sichuan invested $7 billion overseas and its total import-export volume hit $293.3 billion.

The province's rapid infrastructure construction has laid a solid foundation for it to expand its global reach. By the end of last year, the total length of Sichuan's high-speed road and railway reached 6,000 kilometers and 4,600 kilometers respectively, and Chengdu Shuangliu International Airport handles 42 million passenger trips annually.

Sichuan also has 12 feeder-line airports and its total annual harbor capacity exceeds 100 million tons.

The Chengdu-Europe Railway has pushed the province to the forefront of China's international trade.

Sichuan actively participates in China's Belt and Road Initiative, a plan proposed by President Xi Jinping in 2013 to promote international connectivity, common development and cooperation.

The provincial government organizes a series of key projects around the strategy to foster international industrial cooperation. Sichuan also acts with cities and provinces along the Yangtze River to strengthen cooperation in environmental protection and ecology preservation, as well as transport and industry, in the region along the river.

Sichuan will accelerate the construction of a number of projects, including the Sino-ROK Innovation and Business Startup Industry Park, China-France (Chengdu) Ecology Industry Park, and China-Germany Innovation Industry Cooperation Platform. It will also continue to organize national and international expos and promotional activities in investment, trade, technology, alcohol, agriculture and innovation.

In the past five years, Sichuan has also hosted China-US Governors Forum and China-France Local Government High-level Cooperation Forum.

Sichuan's cities have sister city or friendly cooperation relationships with 180 cities abroad, and the province has economic and trade relations with 221 countries and regions.

Forbes magazine forecast that Chengdu would be the fastest developing city over the coming decade this June, and it was rated as one of the 15 best emerging business cities by Fortune magazine in July 2011.

(China Daily 07/23/2016 page25)