Chongqing - Southwest China's Chongqing recently released an action plan for the Western Financial Center for 2024-2027. The plan strives to increase the added value of the city's financial industry to 380 billion yuan (about 52.53 billion USD) by 2027, accounting for over 9.5% of GDP.

In 2023, Chongqing's financial sector added 259.1 billion yuan to its GDP, making up 8.6%. The city also saw ten new companies go public, leading the western region in domestic IPOs.

By the close of 2023, Chongqing reported local and foreign currency deposit and loan balances of 5.36 trillion yuan and 5.67 trillion yuan, respectively. These figures marked annual increases of 8.0% and 9.8%.

Ruan Lu, an official at Chongqing's finance office, highlighted the action plan as a critical roadmap and foundation for fostering high-quality financial development in Chongqing. 

The plan specifies 29 tasks to create a competitive financial institutional framework, develop a financial market system with regional influence, establish a modern system of financial products and services, and encourage a culture of economic innovation.

Ruan clarified that the action plan sets concrete targets for Chongqing's financial sector. By 2025, the plan aims to increase the financial industry's added value to 300 billion yuan, making up 9% of GDP. Local and foreign currency deposit and loan balances are expected to hit 6.2 trillion yuan and 6.6 trillion yuan, respectively. 

The objective is to enhance Chongqing's financial industry's contribution to 380 billion yuan by 2027, representing over 9.5% of GDP. Additionally, the aim is to raise deposit and loan totals to 8 trillion yuan and elevate listed companies' tally to 160.

Furthermore, the plan involves leveraging monetary policy tools and introducing supportive measures, including banking supervision, evaluation improvements, and optimizing local financial policy frameworks. A significant focus will also be on building out major digital financial services applications to seamlessly integrate finance with other key initiatives and the development of modern industries.