China’s Chongqing delegation to the National People’s Congress deliberates on the 15th Five-Year Plan (2026–2030). (Photo/Luo Huxin)
Chongqing - On March 11, China’s Chongqing delegation to the National People’s Congress (NPC) reported its performance during the fourth session of the 14th NPC. Liu Jun, Deputy Secretary-General of the Standing Committee of Chongqing Municipal People’s Congress, announced that the deputies submitted 155 suggestions during the session, including three proposed by the delegation as a whole.
During the session, NPC deputies fulfill their duties by proposing suggestions and deliberating on motions and reports. The three delegation-wide suggestions highlight Chongqing’s strategic urban development focus, centered on two keywords: “automobiles” and “opening-up.”
On the automotive front, the delegation urged national support to position Chongqing as a hub for intelligent connected new energy vehicles (NEVs). Chongqing has a robust automotive foundation. In 2025, vehicle production reached 2.788 million units—a 9.7% year-on-year increase—ranking first among Chinese cities and third globally among provinces and municipalities. NEV production alone hit 1.296 million units—30 times the 2020 figure—surging 36% year-on-year and exceeding the national growth rate by seven percentage points.
During the 15th Five-Year Plan period, Chongqing aims to propel its NEV industry into the global top tier. The delegation suggested extending national “trade-in” subsidies and special sovereign bonds to cover vehicle manufacturing, rather than just consumer purchases. This would shift support from the consumer end to the manufacturing end, aiding NEV research and development, production, capacity expansion, and technological upgrades.
The delegation also suggested backing Chongqing-based automakers in leading or deeply participating in major national projects in autonomous driving, flying cars, and humanoid robots, strengthening the city’s position as a domestic and international automotive hub.
Regarding opening-up, the delegation suggested accelerating the construction of the logistics hub economic zone. In 2025, cargo throughput at the city’s five national logistics hubs reached 120 million tons, a 13% year-on-year increase. As the first Chinese city to host all five types of national logistics hubs—port, land port, airport, production service, and trade service—Chongqing possesses a unique foundation for this development.
The delegation emphasized enhancing the role of the New International Land-Sea Trade Corridor (ILSTC) by supporting international industrial cooperation to mitigate supply chain risks and promoting pilot financial reforms for cross-border recognition of multimodal transport through bills of lading. They also addressed cargo documentation challenges, calling for the implementation of rules for negotiable cargo documents to remove legal barriers for financial innovation and the flow of goods in foreign trade.
Cargo documents, such as bills of lading, serve as proof of ownership, enabling the transfer of goods, letter-of-credit settlements, and financing collateral. In December 2025, the United Nations adopted the Convention on Negotiable Cargo Documents, granting negotiable functions to traditional transport documents at the international level.
Chongqing has pioneered the issuance of negotiable through bills of lading for rail-sea, railway, and river-sea multimodal transport under this Convention. By the end of 2025, over 47,000 such documents had been issued, covering international railway, rail-sea, river-sea, highway-sea, and cross-border highway shuttle transport.
Currently, while these documents are negotiable internationally, domestic laws and regulations remain incomplete. The delegation urged accelerated domestic legislation, early ratification of the Convention, and refinement of supporting policies and judicial safeguards.