Chongqing- The Chongqing Municipality positioned the Chengdu-Chongqing economic circle as the city's primary focus this January. Throughout past Chongqing Mayor's International Economic Advisory Council (CMIA) meetings, numerous global tech giants showcased their tangible commitments towards the ambitious project.

A picture of Chongqing (left) and Chengdu (right). (Photo/Zhang Kunkun)

Among them, Siemens has prominently marked its presence in Chongqing and Chengdu. The tech behemoth has entered into a strategic cooperation agreement with the Chongqing government since the first Smart China Expo in 2018. This partnership bolsters Chongqing's smart city, manufacturing, and transportation sectors. The collaboration also promotes innovation-led strategies, pivoting around Big Data and intelligence.

In 2020, Siemens Transportation Group Inc. and Liangjiang New Area penned a cooperation agreement and landed China's singular 5G Competence Center for Intelligent Transportation. This center focuses on research and development in areas like intelligent connected vehicles, 5G, self-driving technology, and traffic modeling, paving the way for Chongqing to lead intelligent transportation solutions in the 5G era.

Siemens continues to anchor in Sichuan Province, confirming their plans to establish a China Smart Manufacturing Base in Chengdu in June. This move will create nearly 400 jobs. It also bolsters Siemens' local presence in China, enhancing its research, development, and manufacturing prowess, especially in automation and digitalization.

Besides, Microsoft China unveiled its Chengdu-Chongqing Artificial Intelligence Joint Innovation Base in Chongqing's Yubei District in 2020. The initiative, consolidating two major programs under Microsoft, aims at buttressing tech-based enterprises and fostering their growth across multiple regions.

The world's leading chemical company, BASF, a longstanding CMIA advisory, initiated a Methylene diphenyl diisocyanate (MDI) plant in Chongqing's Changshou District in 2015. It has produced and delivered 1 million tons of MDI products. MDI is used to produce polyurethanes for many applications, including manufacturing rigid polyurethane foams used for home and refrigerator insulation.

Yihai Kerry, a subsidiary of Wilmar International, established a massive production facility in Jiangjin District. Since 2020, the soybean processing section of this facility has been designed to handle 1.2 million tons of soybeans every year.

Once the entire project is up and running, it's expected to have an annual processing capacity of 2 million tons, making it the biggest grain and oil processing hub in Southwest China.

During the 16th Annual Meeting of CMIA, advisors presented 90 recommendations to elevate the Chengdu-Chongqing economic circle. These included synergizing industries, green transformations, and improving the business environment. The advisory also emphasized the similarity of Sichuan and Chongqing's industrial layouts and the potential of a synchronized, cohesive development strategy.