Technology becoming new economic engine of Chengdu

By Zhong Nan and Li Yu in Chengdu and Lu Haoting in Beijing (China Daily) Updated: 2014-05-16 07:14

Wang Fengde (second from right), vice-director of China Bluestar Chengrand Chemical Co Ltd, tests products together with researchers. Provided to China Daily

Transformed over two decades from China's biggest base for heavy industry in the western region, Chengdu is now thriving with a modern economy built on high-technology industries that are driving its growth and providing a window on its innovative strength.

Many of these opportunities come from China's national strategy of building the Silk Road economic belt, as well as soaring consumption power and the application of various advanced technologies.

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Eager to gain higher profits from exports, Chengdu has moved toward a low-carbon, high-tech economy by curbing overcapacity and reducing the scale of heavy and energy-intensive industries on the one hand, while on the other encouraging high-tech industries to accelerate the speed of innovation and talent recruitment.

He Li, director of Chengdu's development and reform commission, said that an increasing number of domestic and international companies are building new manufacturing facilities for high-tech products, research centers and logistics hubs in Chengdu. Thus, the city is preparing to scale up efforts to improve services for strategic emerging industries and productive service sectors over the next five years.

"High-end industries, including next-generation information technology, biotechnology, precision machinery manufacturing, energy conservation and environmental protection, plus financial and business services, will further upgrade the competitiveness and innovative capacity of Chengdu and Sichuan province as a whole," He said.

The Chengdu government in February announced an overall strategy of reform, innovation, transformation and upgrading, and optimized its five strategies to push forward the city's industrial transformation and optimize the structure of high-tech industries, environmental investment, and urban and rural planning.