Chongqing - According to Li Jianping, deputy director of the city's Development and Reform Commission, on February 8, Chongqing aims to fully cover the "15-minute high-quality living circles" in its central urban area by December 2025.

This initiative aims to redefine urban living by merging essential services—housing, childcare, elderly care, healthcare, and employment—into a seamless, accessible system. The goal is to create a community where all age groups' needs are met within close reach.

The plan focuses on improving public spaces for fitness, relaxation, and recreation, optimizing childcare facilities for convenience and affordability, and enhancing elderly services through public-private collaboration. It also includes developing community and senior cafeterias to better serve the needs of older residents.

The O'LANE in Jiangbei District, Chongqing. (Photo/O'LANE)

As part of a broader reform strategy, Chongqing's private economy thrived in 2024, with a 6.2% rise in private sector output. Meanwhile, the distribution system is rapidly modernizing, highlighted by the launch of the "Chongqing-Zhoushan" direct river-sea cargo service and the full coverage of the New International Land-Sea Trade Corridor across 13 provinces, autonomous regions, and municipalities.

The City of Inspiration in Chongqing Liangjiang New Area. (Photo/City of Inspiration)

On the social front, over 80% of compulsory education groups now run schools, and the coverage rate of high-quality high-school resources has reached 75%. Moreover, infant and child health management is now part of basic public health services.

Looking ahead to 2025, Chongqing plans to further enhance people's well-being through medical and health system reforms. By then, the city aims to reach 850 drug and consumable varieties for procurement, and the disease diagnosis-related grouping (DRG) payment system will cover 93% of diseases. Efforts to improve services for both the elderly and young children will include a significant increase in nursery spaces and new pilot projects for rural elderly care systems.

Additionally, Chongqing will focus on fostering competitive brands in key sectors such as advanced manufacturing, modern finance, and infrastructure. Companies like Qingling Motors, Sanfeng Environment, Tianyou Diary, and Lesening are among those leading the way. The city aims to develop ten nationally recognized brands.

Reforms in the state-owned enterprise sector are strengthening modern manufacturing clusters, supporting urban construction, and expanding the role of state-owned capital in driving key projects, such as investments in intelligent, connected new energy vehicles and electronic information manufacturing. These efforts are expected to contribute more than 30% of the city's major project investments by 2025, with new investments in high-tech industries projected to grow by over 10%.

Hu Junguo, deputy director of the Chongqing Big Data Application Development Management Bureau, highlighted that the city has established a robust digital infrastructure for intelligent public data platforms and a three-level digital urban governance center. The next step is to upgrade the Western China Data Exchange Center to create a national-level data trading venue.

As a national pilot city for business environment innovation, Chongqing has enriched "credit +" application scenarios and built the "Credit Chongqing" brand. Plans include integrating credit into law enforcement, administrative approval, financial services, and grassroots governance, making it a cornerstone of economic development and support for urban governance modernization.