Chongqing - Southwest China's Chongqing Municipality announced on Friday that its gross domestic product (GDP) had reached 3.01 trillion yuan ($419.08 billion) in 2023, increasing 6.1 percent compared to the previous year.

This marks the municipality in Southwest China officially joining the three trillion yuan GDP club, along with Shanghai, Beijing, and Shenzhen.

Meanwhile, according to the government work report of Guangzhou on Monday, the GDP of the capital city of Guangdong province is anticipated to surpass 3 trillion yuan in 2023. This indicates that the number of Chinese cities in the “3 trillion-yuan GDP club” will reach five.

A city with a GDP of 3 trillion yuan has exceeded most global economies. The data released by the International Monetary Fund in 2023 showed that Malaysia’s GDP in 2022 was close to this figure, at $407.9 billion, ranking 35th globally.

Guangzhou’s GDP was merely 4.3 billion yuan in 1978. It took Guangzhou 33 years to go from 4.3 billion to 1 trillion, followed by eight years to reach 2 trillion. The journey from 2 trillion to 3 trillion was accomplished in just five years.

Compared with Guangzhou, whose GDP surpassed the trillion mark in 2010, Chongqing lagged by a year. However, in 2022, Chongqing’s GDP surpassed Guangzhou, rising to become the fourth-largest economy in China. In the first three quarters of 2023, Chongqing’s GDP surpassed Guangzhou both in terms of growth rate and total amount.

Both cities crossed the 3 trillion yuan threshold in 2023, driven by improved economic structure and quality.

Specifically, for the third consecutive year, both the total retail sales of consumer goods and the total value of imports and exports in Guangzhou have exceeded 1 trillion yuan, with fixed asset investment surpassing 860 billion yuan.

Guangzhou boasts South China’s most diverse industrial categories, covering 35 of 41 major types. And it is working on the construction of a nationally advanced manufacturing base.

In 2023, Guangzhou added 15,200 new 5G base stations, reaching a total of 91,700. The added value of the core industries in the digital economy accounted for 13 percent of the regional GDP.

For Chongqing, with the “33618” modern manufacturing cluster system, its leading industries, pillar sectors, advantageous industries, and emerging sectors are all advancing comprehensively. From January to November 2023, the value-added of the industrial enterprises above the designated size grew by 6.6 percent, ranking 10th nationwide.

The value added in the automotive industry has grown by 9.3 percent in 2023, contributing to a 1.6 percentage point increase in overall industrial growth for the city, said Zhang Binghua, head of the Chongqing Municipal Bureau of Statistics, on Friday.

According to him, significant progress in the new energy vehicle sector has been marked by a historic breakthrough in annual production, reaching 500,300 units. Over the past year, the materials industry has seen a 10.3 percent increase in value added, while the electronic sector has witnessed a surge of 25.6 percent in the value added of intelligent consumer devices.

Investment strongly drives Chongqing’s economic growth. In 2023, key municipal projects completed the annual investment target one month ahead. From January to November, the city’s fixed asset investment increased by 4.7 percent, ranking 12th nationwide, a 9-place improvement.