Auto city in Jilin aims to drive economic development

The Changchun International Auto City in Jilin province is driving the city's high-quality economic development in the sector.

Since last year, China FAW Group has been constructing a series of projects in the auto city, with a total investment of more than 100 billion yuan ($15.63 billion).

In 2020, China FAW achieved sales of 3.706 million vehicles, a year-on-year increase of 7.1 percent. Its operating income reached 697.42 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 12.9 percent. China FAW was the only large-scale automobile enterprise group in the country to achieve rapid growth in sales, revenue and profits.

The group is expected to earn 1 trillion yuan in revenue by 2025.

Industrial projects

On June 26, the first E-QM5 car rolled off the assembly line in the welding workshop of FAW Hongqi Prosperity Plant in the Changchun International Automobile City. The plant will soon add an annual production capacity of 200,000 new energy vehicles in the area.

On July 5, Jilin Linglong Tire's annual output of 14 million high-performance radial tires and 200,000 retreaded tires in the first phase of the project was successfully capped.

The project entered the exterior and equipment installation stage, and will soon officially be put into production.

The Linglong tire project, with an investment of 4.89 billion yuan, is one of the key projects in the Changchun International Automobile City. The project took 112 days from the first negotiation to the official contract.

Through September 2021, Changchun International Automobile City had incorporated 80 major projects in the city's project scheduling board.

Total investment for the projects exceeded 100 billion yuan, and annual planned investment topped 18 billion yuan.

In the first eight months of this year, the Changchun International Automobile City completed 11.5 billion yuan in fixed asset investment, a year-on-year increase of 10 percent.

This year, a series of projects were signed in the Changchun International Automobile City such as the first phase of the new Kaihe comprehensive renovation project and the Red Flag College of Jilin University.

The Changchun International Automobile City is speeding up the promotion of FAW's new energy, power battery and other strategic projects as early as possible.

The Changchun International Automobile City will strengthen district-level leadership guarantees, solve difficulties and problems in the project construction process, and promote the smooth start of project construction.

High-quality development

With reform and innovation as the driving forces, Changchun takes the construction of the auto zone as a major development plan for the city.

It compiled the Changchun International Automobile City Plan (2020-35), focusing on key projects and research and development.

To promote the construction of a high-quality development demonstration zone for the automobile industry, a work promotion mechanism has been established. It features a leading group with six working groups.

The six working groups include a financing guarantee team and one dedicated to improving people's livelihood.

They've implemented normalized work systems such as the "enterprise secretarial system", "on-site work system", and "tracking implementation system" to help China FAW optimize its production plan.

Last year, China's FAW Hongqi brand completed its production and sales target of 200,000 vehicles ahead of schedule.

To increase the supporting rate of auto parts, the Changchun International Automobile City has introduced 36 parts companies with independent R&D capabilities such as Magna, GKN and Denso.

The auto city also optimizes government services and aims to create a first-class business environment and attract part-makers and chain suppliers to settle in the long term.

More than 10 companies, including Minth Group, Neusoft Electronics, KUKA Robotics, and Chengdu Tenneco Fusheng, are establishing settlement centers.

It supports China FAW and its affiliated companies to open a "green channel" for talent services in the automobile industry. In 2020, the city sent more than 1,000 professionals to China FAW.

The auto city prioritizes the construction of the new energy and intelligent network connection demonstration zone as well as a technological innovation demonstration zone in supporting China FAW's independent innovation.

It has built three innovative functional areas in the new energy and intelligent network connection demonstration zone, and guided related enterprises of China FAW to strengthen cross-industry technology integration. By doing so, it aims to improve autonomous driving, network communications, human-computer interactions and simulated platforms.

By the end of this year, the auto city plans to implement 161 key projects with a total investment of more than 190 billion yuan. The annual plan is to complete an investment of 22 billion yuan in a number of key vehicles, parts and R&D creative projects, such as Hongqi New Energy, Linglong Tire, and Faway Hella.

It will assist China FAW Group in establishing a semiconductor chip company, docked with domestic automotive-level suppliers such as SMIC and Xinqing Technology.

The auto city will prioritize the agglomeration effect of the auto parts industry, and promote the construction of an auto mold industrial park, auto industry science and technology park, Japanese parts industrial park, German parts industrial park, and the special vehicle parts industrial park.

The second-tier supporting parts supplier will increase the comprehensive supporting rate of auto parts.

It is also focusing on promoting the construction of new automobile logistics parks and distribution centers, while guiding logistics companies such as GLP, Changjiu to optimize their logistics methods and speed up the distribution of auto parts.