Opening-up is the path China must take to further the country's prosperity and development. And the development of opening-up is inseparable from platforms and carriers.  So, the fourth episode of Chongqing Opportunity focuses on "opening-up platform" as the keyword and tells how key opening-up platforms play a leading role during the 13th Five-Year Plan period (2016-2020) to promote high-quality development in Chongqing.

According to the Chongqing Municipal Commission of Commerce, Chongqing has formed a "1+2+7+9" open platform system, namely one National Development Zone, Liangjiang New Area. And two national institutional innovation platforms, China (Chongqing) Free Trade Zone and The China-Singapore (Chongqing) Demonstration Initiative on Strategic Connectivity. 7 National Economic and Technical development zones and High-tech Zones, nine special customs supervision zones, and bonded logistics centers.

During the 13th Five-Year Plan period, the leading role of key opening-up platforms has continued to increase. The import and export volume of Chongqing's foreign trade has stabilized at more than 500 billion yuan, and the use of foreign investment has stabilized at more than US$10 billion annually. There are 293 top Fortune 500 companies in Chongqing.

The Liangjiang New Area's opening-up leadership and port integration effects have initially appeared. They have gradually become an essential gateway for inland areas to open to the outside world and a development base for advanced manufacturing and modern service industries. The Liangjiang New Area Digital Economic Industrial Park has registered 5,105 digital economy enterprises, and the output value of digital economy enterprises above designated size reached 359.5 billion yuan.

In five years, a total of 228 contracts were signed for the China-Singapore (Chongqing) Demonstration Initiative on Strategic Connectivity, with a total contract value of approximately US$32.08 billion, and the actual use of foreign capital was US$6.59 billion. The iconic project China-Singapore International Data Channel has been implemented in 7 areas, including Liangjiang Digital Economic Industrial Park and Xiantao Data Valley, and has launched application demonstration projects in multiple fields such as telemedicine and smart education, smart logistics, and cross-border e-commerce.

Besides, the Chongqing Pilot Free Trade Zone has explored and formed more than 240 institutional innovations. It has gathered more than one-quarter of the city's import and export enterprises, contributed about 70% of the city's total import and export trade, and attracted 44.7% of its total foreign direct investment.

Furthermore, the Western (Chongqing) Science City has joined hands with Peking University to build the Chongqing Science Center in Chongqing, building a science and technology innovation center with national influence. Introduce and construct 43 new research and development institutions, such as the Institute of Electronic Science and Technology of China and China United Microelectronics Center to settle in the Western (Chongqing) Science City.