Chongqing- Sino-Swiss Technopark (SSTP) is designed to promote domestic demand in Chongqing and the second phase of this park will involve a shopping mall area with a recreational park as well as a duty-free shop, said Raphael Zumsteg-Yuan, legal manager of Fenshare Holding's Sino-Swiss Technopark, during an exclusive interview with iChongqing recently.

He added, "And we hope to contribute to making Chongqing more consumption-driven."

Efforts to build International Consumption Center

Chongqing has officially started the pace of building an international consumption center in an all-around way.

This year's report on the work of Chongqing Municipal People's Government proposed to "expand consumption capacity and seize opportunities introduced by the building of Chongqing into an international consumption center."

On Feb 8, Chongqing issued 23 specific measures to cultivate and build the city as an international consumption center. 

As the central base of Chongqing in Europe and the carrier for the cooperation between Chongqing and Europe, SSTP has endorsed their effort to build International Consumption Center.

"This is also one of our aims to promote domestic demand in Chongqing. So we just started last year. Phase two of the Sino-Swiss Technopark will involve a shopping mall area with a recreational park as well as a duty-free shop, And we hope to in this way to contribute to making Chongqing more consumption-driven," said Zumsteg.

SSTP opened in 2018 and is located in the Chongqing Liangjiang New Area. It provides information and docking services for European enterprises and institutions to invest and develop in Chongqing.

Those docking services mainly focus on the source of precision, high-tech, and quality from selected Swiss SMEs, for example, precision mechanical manufacturing, chemical manufacturing, finance and insurance, wholesale trade, retail trade, etc.

Since its opening, it has attracted 32 scientific and technological enterprises with "new technologies, new processes and new materials" settled in.

"And usually we such large projects need to be done together with government. So in this case, we were very happy to have the support of Liangjiang New District that supports us in this, we think that's something to continue in the future," Zumsteg added.

Enjoy the life in Chongqing 

At the moment, Zumsteg and his wife live in Beibei District. "We like the city a lot because it's a combination of big city life and nature at the same time. So I like everything related to hiking in winter, maybe snow sports skiing. And there are also rivers and lakes. And I think this provides for a very good living quality," said Zumsteg.

During the COVID-19 outbreak, he has posted videos about his quarantine life on the Internet. It has become popular online, attracting a lot of interest abroad.

"The next thing is that we're hoping that travel restrictions will ease and so we can go back see family members, but also let family members come over here because many haven't been to Chongqing and we would like to have family and friends come over. Show them what Chongqing is like, take them to nice places," said Zumsteg. "So it has had an impact, but at the same time, we're very happy to be here because life has since 2020 continued been pretty normal for us."