Chongqing - On Oct.23, Xu Sitao, Chief Economist of Deloitte China, decoded Chongqing's economic achievement and popularity at the Rising Star Cities Lecture at Chongqing Xiantao Big Data Valley. He gave a detailed analysis on Chongqing's booming economic development by explaining how Chongqing as a transportation hub connecting China with the world, and as a key industrial center, applies the latest smart manufacturing into traditional industries, as well as how Chongqing taps into its culture and tourism resources to drive its consumption growth.

Combining with the Chengdu-Chongqing economic circle as a key growth pole in western China, Mr. Xu shared his insights on this important regional development strategy with iChongqing. In his opinion, in the past 40 years, China's economy had been mainly driven by coastal areas, and now it's time for the hinterland to powerhead. As an important metropolitan city in western China, Chongqing has always played an important role in boosting the regional economy. The strategy of the Chengdu-Chongqing economic circle opens a new chapter for Chongqing's development. In the future, Chongqing and Sichuan will work synergically in their development. For example, two places will work together to upgrade their industries like the manufacturing industry, electronic industry, health caring industry, and so forth to a more advanced, intelligent, and environment-friendly level.

Xu Sitao decoding the economic achievement and the popularity of Chongqing at the Rising Star Cities Lecture (iChongqing/Mu Xuelin)

Meanwhile, compared with the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, the Yangtze River Delta, and the Guangdong -Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, in Mr. Xu's opinion, the Chengdu-Chongqing economic circle has its own unique development patterns. He thought that developing logistics was significant for this new region. Developed transportation networks like Chongqing-Xinjiang-Europe International Railway and cargo aviation allow cargoes to be delivered worldwide by land, air, and water from this region. Unlike the other three economically developed regions, with relatively lower costs, the Chengdu-Chongqing Economic Circle owns many potentials.

In terms of Chongqing's future development, Mr. Xu said automobile and motorcycle production industries are among the supporting industries of Chongqing, and improving energy usage efficiency in production and tapping into green energy in these industries will be its future development direction, which will contribute a lot to China's pledged to reach carbon neutrality by 2060.