By Yuling Chen, Deng Zhang, iChongqing News

Chongqing- “Half of our investment in the Chinese mainland is in Chongqing,” said Mr. David Hsu, Chairman of Jardine Matheson China, Jardine Strategic Holdings Ltd, at an interview during the Belt and Road Forum for Interconnected Land-Sea Development in Southwest China’s Chongqing Municipality, June 3, 2019.

"We invested in Chongqing fifteen years ago," Mr. David Hsu continued. The company's investment in Chongqing covers food, clothing, and housing, including Hongkong Land, Zung Fu Motors, and Yonghui Supermarket. When it comes to Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen, and other first-tier cities in China, there were and are more multi-national companies, the competition much more onerous and also cost higher. Based on that, the chairman explained why the company chose and still chooses Chongqing, "So during that time, we had joint ventures in Chongqing. We found projects here are very successful, so we decided to do more." 

When asked about the comparative advantages of Chongqing in his eyes, Mr. Hsu shared his opinion at the interview. He thinks Chongqing's population is young and its size is, with more than 33 million people. "Chongqing has a downtown area, suburban area, and rural area. From the perspective of investment and development, you're not limited to the downtown area. You can see potential in suburban and rural areas."

In addition, Mr. Hsu said that due to the construction of the New International Land-Sea Trade Corridor (ILSTC), Chongqing's location advantage is more prominent. The company is optimistic about the development potential of Chongqing and will continue to increase investment in the future.

"In the past, transport restricted the economic development in Chongqing in inland China. Now the city has become a pioneer of opening-up in hinterland China." He said that Chongqing has the Yangtze River waterway to the east, China Railway Express to Europe to the west, and ILSTC to the south.

Zung Fu Motors has more than 200 Mercedes-Benz cars transported from Germany to Chongqing via the China-Europe freight train. It takes only about 16 days, much shorter than the traditional shipping of nearly 5 weeks.