On May 21, a cloud press conference of Chongqing delegation to NPC was held, with five NPC deputies discussing their views and opinions on Promoting the Construction of the Chengdu-Chongqing Economic Circle. According to Xu Ren'an, Deputy to the NPC and Director of Chongqing Transportation Bureau, Chongqing will establish a strong transportation system to support the construction of the Chengdu-Chongqing Economic Circle.

It is a long-term vision of strategic importance to drive the development of the Chengdu-Chongqing Economic Circle since it is in line with the objective trend and requirements of achieving high-quality development to follow the major changes in China's economic, spatial structure. In this way, it also meets the intense expectations of people in Chengdu and Chongqing. "Better building the Chengdu-Chongqing Economic Circle and promoting regional connectivity are our top priorities. To achieve the goal, we should build a strong transportation system," said Xu Ren'an. "Since early this year, we have reached a consensus with Sichuan on collaborative planning and accelerated project construction. We have made such achievements as furthering Sichuan-Chongqing transportation cooperation and promoting Sichuan-Chongqing transportation integration," he added.

The Bureau will stick to the strategic goal of "Two Centers and Two Places" and follow the idea of "Unified Planning, Integrated Connection, Connectivity, Coordinated Management, and Co-Governance and Sharing." The Bureau will work to be a pioneer in promoting the development of the Chengdu-Chongqing Economic Circle. It will also provide strong support for the development of high-quality growth drivers in western China and a strategic focus of opening-up in inland China." By 2035, we hope to have established a modern comprehensive transportation system leading to the world, with major regions in China in the reach, and energizing western China," said Xu Ren'an. Xu added, "To make this system a reality, we should focus on the following six aspects."

Xu said, "We should put more emphasis on integrating the overall and the partial, seizing the opportunities coming with the development of the Chengdu-Chongqing Economic Circle and the pilot works for building a country with strong transportation networks and furthering cooperation between Sichuan and Chongqing." Xu also added, "In addition, we should closely communicate with the relevant ministries and commissions. We need to prepare development plans, and transportation infrastructure construction action plans and develop several targeted major projects, policies, and measures. We should strive to make our efforts incorporated into the relevant national plans."

In addition, the Chongqing Transportation Bureau will take Chengdu-Chongqing Midline High-speed Railway as the most critical project and strive to launch the project within this year. Also, they hope to establish the dual-channel high-speed railway as soon as possible to boost the construction of an important economic center. At the same time, they will start and expedite the development and reconstruction of other high-speed railways in the two cities to shorten the space-time distance between the Chengdu-Chongqing area and major urban agglomerations and economic zones in China and make every effort to build a "one-hour commuting circle" with rail transit as the backbone.

In terms of highway transportation, the Bureau will focus on improving the highway network, ensuring a smooth flow of traffic on the major expressways in Sichuan and Chongqing, and enhancing the regional agglomeration and influence capacity. They will also quicken the construction of national and provincial trunk lines in the neighboring areas of Sichuan and Chongqing, coordinate construction standards, time and sequence of construction, and remove transport bottlenecks to ensure improved smooth traffic operation.

"Besides, we will also focus on strengthening the construction of eastbound passages and strive to build a shipping center in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River," Xu Renan said, "The two places will jointly call on the country to support the construction of the new Three Gorges waterway, and make huge efforts to initiate the improvement and construction of various waterways and smoothen the network of trunk and branch waterways." The Bureau will intensify our efforts to realize division of labor and cooperation between ports of Sichuan and Chongqing, promote the interactive development of logistics ports in the two places, and jointly build a shipping center in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River. Vigorously developing in-regional transportation and waterway-waterway transit to strive to establish an efficient river-sea combined transportation system and accelerate the improvement of the modern shipping service system, devoting ourselves to making the golden waterway of Yangtze River produce more advantageous and fruitful benefits.

In respect of airport system construction, the Bureau will put emphasis on building international aviation hubs, establish a coordinated development mechanism for airports of Sichuan and Chongqing and build an international aviation hub system that is driven by two cores. In addition, they will go deep into the research on the function of air freight transportation, strive to add a number of airports, and orderly advance the construction of Xiannvshan Airport and the reconstruction and capacity expansion of Wanzhou Airport and Qianjiang Airport. 

"In coordination with Sichuan, we are focusing on efficient and high-quality services and building an integrated transportation system," Xu Ren'an added, "We attach importance to eastbound expansion, westward quality improvement, southward joint construction and northward potential tapping. We are dedicated to playing the roles of the golden waterway of Yangtze River, China Railway Express, the new western land-sea corridor, and Chongqing-Manzhouli-Russia trains." Moreover, Chongqing and Sichuan will also invest a lot in implementing the use of all-in-one public transport cards in Chongqing and Chengdu, densifying inter-provincial and inter-city public transport lines in neighboring areas, putting public transport trains into operation, promoting a monthly ticket system for high-speed rail operation, developing intelligent transportation, improving transportation quality, and boosting the construction of high-quality, livable places.