Chongqing- Southwest China's Chongqing announced its economic performance in the first half of the year today, where its GDP reached 1,290.341 billion yuan (approx. 198.93 billion U.S. dollars), a year-on-year increase of 12.8%, an average growth rate of 6.6% in two years, and 1.4 percentage points faster than the first quarter of this year.

In general, the economic operation of Chongqing in the first half of the year showed the characteristics of stable growth, rising demand, enhanced driving force, regional synergy, improvement of quality and efficiency, upgrade of people's livelihood, and greater expectations.

Highlighted results on high-tech manufacturing industry

In the first half of the year, the manufacturing industry of Chongqing increased by 20.8% year on year, becoming the most potent engine for the city's industry and the entire economy to grow steadily.

Especially in the first half of the year, the added value of high-tech manufacturing and strategic emerging manufacturing increased by 31.9% and 30.1% year-on-year, respectively. The growth rate was 12.9 and 11.1 percentage points higher than that of the previous year's regulated industries in Chongqing.

Also, the high-tech manufacturing industry and the strategic emerging manufacturing industry accounted for 19.4% and 28.9% of the regulated industrial added value, respectively. Compared with the previous year, the proportions increased by 0.3 and 0.9 percentage points, respectively.

Emerging products have grown dramatically, with optical cables, lithium-ion batteries, integrated circuits, and industrial robots increasing by 72.9%, 59.5%, 32.3%, and 26.8%, respectively, year-on-year.

Products	Year-on-year increase
Optical cables	72.9%
Lithium-ion batteries	59.5%
Integrated circuits	32.3%
Industrial robots	26.8%

Meanwhile, with innovation as the driving force, the pillar industries in Chongqing developed steadily in the first half of the year.

The added value of the two major industries, automobile, and motorcycle, and electronics, increased by 23.7% and 33.0%, respectively, year-on-year. Other pillar industries, including equipment, materials, and consumer goods, also achieved steady growth at a higher speed and better quality.

Major industries	Year-on-year increase
Automobile and motorcycle	23.7%
Electronics	33.0%

Wu An, Director of the Institute of Industrial Economics of the Chongqing Academy of Social Sciences, believes that Chongqing’s placing of technological innovation at the core of driving industrial development promotes industrial transformation upgrading.

Continuous efforts in multiple fields

Additionally, Chongqing has continued to make efforts in investment, investment promotion, and modern service industries to inject new momentum into encouraging the high-quality development of the manufacturing industry.

Investment

In terms of investment, in the first half of the year, the investment in fixed assets of Chongqing increased by 9.3% year-on-year, with an average growth rate of 4.7% in two years, an acceleration of seven percentage points from the Q1 this year.

Among them, investment in high-tech manufacturing increased by 27.1% year-on-year, which was 12 percentage points higher than the growth rate of industrial investment and an average increase of 18% in two years.

Moreover, high-tech manufacturing investment accounted for 26.8% of industrial investment, an increase of 2.5 percentage points from the same period last year, driving the city's industrial investment to increase by 6.6 percentage points, with a contribution rate of 43.5%.

Investment promotion

In terms of investment promotion, Chongqing has successively held important conferences such as the 3^rd Western China International Fair for Investment and Trade, the Chengdu-Chongqing Economic Circle Global Investment Promotion Conference, and the China Industrial Software Conference 2021.

Chongqing strives to create a new highland for gathering innovative resources by organizing a series of investment promotion activities.

From January to May this year, Chongqing signed official contracts with a value of nearly 700 billion yuan (approx. 107.90 billion U.S. Dollars), and a total of started 385 new investment projects.

In the first half of the year, the funds in place for investment projects in the city are expected to exceed 170 billion yuan (approx. 26.21 billion U.S. Dollars), accounting for 53.1% of the annual target tasks... Projects of big data, smart manufacturing, green manufacturing, etc., serve as the most important highlights.

Modern service industry

In terms of the modern service industry, in the first half of the year, the service industry of Chongqing rebounded steadily. The added value of the tertiary sector increased by 12.9% year on year, and the two-year average growth rate was 6.5%.

From January to May this year, the operating income of enterprises in the Internet and related services, software, and information technology service industries above designated size in the city increased by 38.4% year-on-year, and the two-year average growth rate was 42.3%.

Up to now, the R&D investment intensity of products of “Made in Chongqing” has been at the forefront of the country.

Specifically, the sales income of new products has steadily increased, and the investment intensity of high-tech manufacturing has exceeded the overall investment. The high-quality development driven by industrial innovation has achieved remarkable results.