Chongqing-Celebrating its second anniversary, the Chengdu-Chongqing economic circle welcomes another milestone. On January 3, 2020, Chinese President Xi Jinping stressed at the sixth meeting of the Central Committee for Financial and Economic Affairs that relevant parties should boost the construction of the Chengdu-Chongqing economic circle to foster an essential growth pole in western China and develop the Chengdu-Chongqing area into an important economic center, a center for scientific and technological innovation, a new highland for reform and opening-up and a livable place with a high-quality of life.

In retrospect, the construction of the Chengdu-Chongqing economic circle has been accelerated over the past two years.

Major projects

Major projects are key engines to propel the construction of the Chengdu-Chongqing Economic Circle. In July 2020, Sichuan and Chongqing unveiled 31 co-developed major projects, with the investment totaling 556.3 billion yuan (about 87.5 billion U.S. dollars). In 2021, the number of such projects reached 67, and the total investment reached 1.57 trillion yuan (about 246.3 billion U.S. dollars).

The Chengdu-Chongqing Midline High-speed Railway is the smoothest and most efficient passenger transport line between Chongqing and Chengdu. It is also the first major project jointly developed by Sichuan and Chongqing.

In August 2020, the Second Chengdu-Chongqing Midline High-speed Railway project was approved by National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC). Only 13 months later, on September 26, 2021, the construction commenced, a rare case in China with such high efficiency.

As of the end of November 2021, Sichuan and Chongqing had co-developed 67 major projects had completed 205.7 billion yuan (about 32.4 billion U.S. dollars) investment, of which 93.4 billion yuan(about 14.7 billion U.S. dollars) were completed in the first 11 months as scheduled.

Cooperation blueprint

The cooperation blueprint is expanding. According to the fourth session of Chongqing and Sichuan Party-administration joint meeting on construction of the Chengdu-Chongqing economic circle, the two parties plan to boost the completion of 46 major tasks in 10 fields and develop 160 major projects in 2022.

Convenient life

People's livelihood has been taken great concern during the construction of the Chengdu-Chongqing economic circle. In August 2020, the twin cities opened the first two-way inter-provincial bus route linking Yongchuan in Chongqing and Luzhou in Sichuan. By the end of 2021, Sichuan and Chongqing had established 11 bus routes.

Apart from transportation, 211 items related to people's livelihood are processed in Sichuan and Chongqing, including taxation, transportation, and employment. Until the end of November 2021, 5.89 million such items had been dealt with.

The action for convenient life in Chengdu-Chongqing Economic Circle has launched 43 items. For example, the twin cities promoted the electronic development of high-speed railway travel documents, provision of social security card-related cross-region services, and student information sharing.