Customers were picking apples in a grocery store in Nanchuan, Chongqing, Jan. 1, 2026. (Photo/Chongqing Daily).
Chongqing - Chongqing’s private sector expanded its role in driving employment and rural development in 2024, employing about 640,000 people and investing 63 billion yuan (about 9 billion U.S. dollars) in rural revitalization, according to data released by the Chongqing Federation of Industry and Commerce recently.
During the 14th Five-Year Plan period (2021–2025), the value added by the city’s private sector rose from 1.48 trillion yuan to 1.98 trillion yuan. Its share of Chongqing’s GDP increased from 59% to 61.6%. The number of private market entities grew from 2.901 million to 3.673 million, accounting for 97.8% of all market entities in the municipality.
Private firms remain the main source of job creation. The 2025 Report on Chongqing Private Enterprises' Social Responsibility said surveyed firms hired nearly 8,000 college graduates and provided jobs for more than 60,000 people in key groups, including rural migrant workers, people with disabilities, and demobilized military personnel. In 2024, the private sector provided 640,000 newly added urban jobs in Chongqing, accounting for more than 90% of the total.
Private enterprises have also expanded their participation in rural revitalization. As of 2024, a total of 11,178 private firms in Chongqing had joined the "10,000 Enterprises Revitalizing 10,000 Villages" initiative, pairing with 5,919 villages and launching 13,146 village revitalization projects, with total investment reaching 63 billion yuan. Private firms in the city donated 649 million yuan to charitable organizations in 2024, up 54% year on year.
The private sector has become a key force in Chongqing’s drive for technological innovation and the development of its "33618" Modern Manufacturing Cluster System. By 2024, Chongqing had 8,042 private high-tech enterprises, accounting for 91%of the total. R&D spending by the city’s top 100 private enterprises reached 22.3 billion yuan, up 25% year on year.
Several Chongqing companies earned national recognition. Sevnce Robotics Co. Ltd. and Chongqing Theseus Information Technology Co. Ltd. were selected for CCTV’s 2024 top 10 annual cases on new quality productive forces.
In 2025, seven Chongqing firms made the China Top 500 Private Enterprises list, and five were included in the China Top 500 Private Manufacturing Enterprises list. Meixin Group was selected as a representative case in the 2025 model cases on coordinated digital and green transformation.
In supporting the Chengdu-Chongqing economic circle, 97 chambers of commerce in Chongqing signed strategic cooperation agreements with counterparts in Sichuan. The Chongqing Electronic Circuit Industrial Park has attracted 56 companies, with an annual output value exceeding 20 billion yuan, helping strengthen industrial cluster coordination across the two regions.
The 2025 Global Chongqing Entrepreneurs Conference also delivered a slate of agreements, some international. Entrepreneurs and chamber leaders from 56 countries and regions and 30 provincial-level regions in China gathered in Chongqing, signing 64 projects with a total contract value of 56.7 billion yuan.
The Chongqing Federation of Industry and Commerce organized five outbound business delegations involving 95 entrepreneurs. One company has already established an overseas plant, and three companies secured export cooperation orders totaling 193 million yuan.