Recently, Tang Liangzhi, Deputy Secretary of CPC Chongqing Municipal Committee and Mayor of Chongqing Municipal People’s Government stressed at the meeting of the Steering Group for the Belt and Road Initiative that relevant departments needed to thoroughly put into action the significant words of General Secretary Xi Jinping on opening-up and important instructions and requirements on Chongqing. They should attach more importance to planning Chongqing’s development in big-picture terms and with serving the overall situation in mind, introduce Chongqing into the joint pursuit of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), carry out deeper opening-up that involves more places and fields, and endeavor to lead and drive opening-up in West China.

The meeting reviewed a list of the Belt and Road major project register of Chongqing and an action plan of Chongqing to deepen economic and trade cooperation with ASEAN (2020-2025) and studied and arranged the next steps.

Mayor Tang Liangzhi said that since 2020, Chongqing had achieved solid progress in pursuing the BRI. Logistics and operation organization centers and operating companies for the New International Land-Sea Trade Corridor (ILSTC) had been put into service. One thousand two hundred rail-sea intermodal trains and 2,400 China-Europe freight trains had run on railways. The imports and exports between Chongqing and countries (regions) along the BRI reached 162.51 billion yuan (about 20.06 billion U.S. dollars) from January to November, a year-on-year growth of 13.2%.

He emphasized that Chongqing should take an active role in the “dual circulation” and catalyze the construction of an exemplary city of opening-up in inland China, guided by the joint pursuit of the BRI.

It’s necessary for the city to speed up the shaping of a grand opening-up channel, enhance the support for the international logistics hubs in inland China, develop ILSTC, fuel the high-quality development of China-Europe freight trains, and building of the Yangtze River Golden Waterway and railways along the Yangtze River, accelerate the forming of a strategic hub featuring combined development of the BRI, the Yangtze River Economic Belt, and ILSTC.

Chongqing should build opening-up platforms at a high level, drive the upgrading of and cooperation between Liangjiang New Area, China-Singapore (Chongqing) Demonstration Initiative on Strategic Connectivity, China (Chongqing) Pilot Free Trade Zone, Chongqing High-tech Industrial Development Zone, Western (Chongqing) Science City, and Chongqing Economic and Technological Development Zone, and establish the Belt and Road Foreign Communication Center.

Chongqing needs to improve the quality of open economic development, achieve high-quality “bringing in” and high-level “going out,” power innovative trade development, make better use of foreign investment, and continuously expand markets in countries (regions) along the BRI.