One of the biggest cities in the world, an exciting metropolis Chongqing has gained an annual GDP growth rate of at least 10 percent for well over a decade. It was learnt on the marvelous visit arranged by China NGO Network for International Exchanges for a wide range of delegation belonging to different countries. In a briefing by the officials of the city , it was told that economic growth of the city has always set the remarkable trends and began to take off spectacularly since Chongqing became its own municipality, separate from Sichuan province in 1997.

With a history stretching 3,000 years, Chongqing has been an important political, economic and strategic center in China’s west.It is known as “mountain city” owing to its rugged terrain and steep gorges and that has become the most  attractive part of attraction for locals and foreigners.The Yangtze River starts here and winds through the municipality and makes its way towards Shanghai on the eastern seaboard more than 1,600 kilometres away.From the briefing , it was learnt that the Chinese Government has designated Chongqing as a key hub in western China, making it a bridgehead for economic development in the vast interior.

As a result, Chongqing has benefited from Beijing’s policies such as the Go West strategy, the Chongqing Liangjiang New Area, the Yangtze River Economic Belt, the Belt and Road Initiative and the Chengdu-Chongqing Cities Cluster Development Strategy, as well as the establishment of a Chongqing Pilot Free Trade Zone.Chongqing is China’s biggest producer of automobiles with an annual production of over 3 million vehicles in 2016.  It also produced more than 8 million motorcycles. Incredibly, Chongqing produced 58 million laptops, one third of the world's production in 2016.

It also produced 280 million mobile phones that year, which was 15 per cent of China’s total mobile phone production. In 2016 Chongqing’s innovation level was ranked 19th out of 20 major cities in the country.In the past five years, Chongqing’s GDP increased by nearly 1 trillion yuan (about 138.3 billion U.S. dollars), with an average annual growth rate of 6.7%, and its per capita GDP reached 87,000 yuan, higher than the national level. This means that the city’s economic development has transformed from high-speed growth to high-quality development.

As a significant manufacturing powerhouse in China, the city’s industrial added value was 788.9 billion yuan in 2021, accounting for 28.3% of GDP, which is an essential support for the economy’s steady growth.Chongqing serves as one of the leading automobile production bases in the country. To build a national advanced manufacturing center and improve the industrial chain, the industrial structure has changed from automobiles and electronics to cars, electronics, equipment, materials, consumer goods, and other industries.From 2017 to 2021, the output value of electronic manufacturing and software information services above the designated size increased by 17.5% and 18.2% annually, respectively.

The output of new energy vehicles is up to 14.7% of the total car production, and intelligent connected vehicles are rising to 15.7%. High-quality development is inseparable from green growth. Green industries in the city accounted for 20% of the total industrial output value. Energy consumption per unit of GDP has dropped by 16.1% in the past five years.Ten national industrial design centers and 40 national enterprise technology centers have injected innovation vitality into Chongqing. More than 4,800 intelligent transformation projects, 127 smart factories, and 734 digital workshops have accelerated intelligent manufacturing. The people with the more commitment and passion are set to play their role in the development of magnanimous city that is leading the economic development in the western region.

Credit: Independent News Pakistan-INP