According to the latest statistics about Chongqing’s economic performance in the first half of this year, Chongqing’s GDP reached RMB1.29 trillion (USD199.6 billion), a year-on-year increase of 12.8%. Chongqing Liangjiang New Area ranks first in Chongqing in terms of many indicators, such as industrial added value of enterprises of designated scale, the value of signed contracts through investment attraction and total tax revenue, becoming bedrock of stability in high-quality development in this region. All these achievements have been resulted from Liangjiang New Area’s efforts in transforming and upgrading itself and focusing on sci-tech innovation to expand industrial clusters and upgrade the industrial chain.

Photo taken on April 2, 2020 shows the welding and assembly workshop of Jinkang SERES Liangjiang Intelligent Factory where spot welding robots are conducting welding operation. (Xinhua/Huang Wei)

In intelligent production lines of finished automobile enterprises in Liangjiang New Area like Chang’an Auto, SERES and SAIC-IVECO HONGYAN, industrial robots are quickly assembling all kinds of components and we can see finished vehicles constantly coming out of production lines. In the first half of this year, new cars, like UNI-K of Chang’an, LAUTILUS of Chang’an and Lincoln as well as  SERES SF5, came into the market one after one and have been popular among customers.

Automobile is a pillar industry in Chongqing, reaching a production peak of 3.16 million vehicles in 2016. However, due to the lack of high-end technologies and overall low-end products, the output continued to decline in the following years, dropping steeply to 1.383 million vehicles in 2019, with the average price of a single vehicle less than RMB100,000 (USD15,470). In the first half of this year, Liangjiang New Area enjoyed an output of 435,000 vehicles and an output value of RMB74 billion (USD11.4 billion) in the automobile industry, up 58.1% and 34% respectively year-on-year. The average price of a single vehicle was also raised to RMB165,000 (USD25,525.5). Such a growth contributed a lot to the transformation of Chongqing’s automobile industry

The increase in both output and price of local automobile industry should be attributed to Liangjiang New Area and key players in the industry who have actively adjusted development strategy, earnestly conducted supply-side structural reform and expedited industry upgrading towards medium and high end. According to Li Shun, deputy director of Chongqing Liangjiang New Area Administration, the government and enterprises have jointly improved the production lines with big data and intelligent technologies and brought in component R&D centers and other projects, in an effort to enhance the R&D capability of new cars. With these measures, Chongqing’s automobile industry has been successfully rejuvenated.

Photo taken on April 2, 2021 shows intelligent mechanical arms in the assembly workshop of Jinkang SERES Liangjiang Intelligent Factory. (Xinhua/Huang Wei)

Another pillar industry in Liangjiang New Area, the electronics industry, also enjoyed fast growth in the first half of the year, achieving an output value of RMB104.2 billion (USD16.1 billion), up 48 percent year-on-year. Hu Jingbin, director of the Industrial Promotion Bureau of Liangjiang New Area, said that the rapid growth of the electronics industry should give credit to efforts in two aspects. On the one hand, electronics enterprises have seized the opportunity of market reorganization presented by COVID-19 pandemic. On the other hand, Liangjiang New Area has strengthened the leading role of key enterprises and developed relevant supporting enterprises. As a result, the electronics industry in Liangjiang New Area has achieved cluster-based development by fully tapping the influence of leading players like BOE and Chongqing Laibao Technology and by developing a large number of supporting enterprises along the industrial chain.

The first Lighthouse Factory Project in Southwestern China of SANY Heavy Industry Co., Ltd. has been completed in Liangjiang New Area. In the factory, we can see automatic material delivering carts shuttling around and mechanical arms waving all the time. When it came to the reasons for choosing Liangjiang New Area, Li Bing, the person in charge of the project, said that Liangjiang New Area has a complete manufacturing supporting system, a large number of technical R&D personnel, and an interoperable supply chain system.

This project is an epitome of industrial-chain-based investment attraction in Liangjiang New Area. According to the features of the industrial chain, Liangjiang New Area has attracted a large number of upstream and downstream supporting enterprises to form a complete supporting system, which has attracted leading companies in return. Hence, a virtuous circle of investment attraction has been established. In the first half of this year, Liangjiang New Area has signed investment contracts amounting to RMB91.8 billion (USD14.2), and introduced 23 new major projects of over RMB1 billion (USD154.7 million).

It is sci-tech innovation that ultimately expands industrial clusters and upgrades industrial chains. To address the shortage of famous local research institutes and high-end research talents, Liangjiang New Area has taken sci-tech innovation as a priority in recent years. On the basis of the industrial chain, it has laid out the innovation chain and empowered regional industrial transformation with science and technology.

The Chongqing Liangjiang Coordinative Zone, located at the foot of the Mingyue Mountain and embraced by rivers, enjoys pleasant ecological environment. It has turned from a wild land of hills and mountains two years ago to a complex of advanced scientific research buildings, some being constructed and some already in use. The Coordinative Zone houses research institutes from 35 higher education institutions at home and abroad, attracting over 1,000 high-end scientific research talents.

At the Chongqing Innovation Center of Beijing Institute of Technology, Dr. Qin Qingwang, technical leader of the hyperspectral computational imaging scientific research team, is busy with the product launch. “Hyperspectral computational imaging devices can efficiently and accurately identify relevant substances through image and spectral analysis,” said Dr. Qin, “and have promising applications in geological exploration, environmental monitoring, industrial inspection and other fields.”

These research institutions brought to Chongqing cutting-edge technologies in many areas, such as aerospace, new energy, high-end equipment and new materials. In April this year, the Innovation Center NPU-Chongqing was officially inaugurated. Within just a few months, five research laboratories were basically built. From precision casting of high-performance materials to residual stress testing, almost all of the five laboratories are focused on key technologies and components in aerospace.

According to Wang Fei, chairman of Chongqing Liangjiang Coordinative Zone Construction and Investment Development Cooperation, the Coordinative Zone has taken two-thronged measures to precisely match technology supply with industrial demands and address difficulties in the application of technical results. On the one hand, it has fully tapped the potential of key teams and projects to foster sci-tech enterprises of high growth potentiality by sharing scientific research equipment, building incubation carriers and injecting government funds and venture capital funds to them. On the other hand, it has held regular matchmaking meetings and salons between scientific research institutions and enterprises, promoted contract signing of more than 100 research projects between settled research institutions and local enterprises like Chang’an Auto and BOE, and completed the application of more than 30 scientific and technological achievements.

It is the duty and mission of a national-level development and opening-up new area to play a leading role in regional development and national strategies by attracting enterprises and influencing surrounding areas. The person in charge of Chongqing Liangjiang New Area said that the New Area will continue to focus on industrial upgrading and technology empowerment, and play a leading role in promoting high-quality development of the region.