Chengdu thrives as international gateway hub

More than 300 Fortune Global 500 companies operate in the city

Chengdu in Sichuan province has endeavored to boost the nation's opening-up policy and is building an inland open highland and an international gateway hub. It's also working to optimize its business environment and ability to attract talents and investment around the globe.

On Jan 4, BOE, the world's largest display panel supplier, announced the official start of its vehicle display base project in Chengdu.

"This year, our output value in Chengdu is expected to reach 50 billion yuan ($7.85 billion). We hope to introduce hundreds of companies to form a 'Circle of Friends' and build China's largest ecological chain of flexible display bases," a BOE executive said.

In 2021, Chengdu attracted a large number of multinational companies, including many well-known Fortune Global 500 companies such as Boehringer Ingelheim, a world-renowned family-owned pharmaceutical company that will construct a German gold standard stroke rehabilitation center in Chengdu Medical City. Attracted companies also include AstraZeneca, a global biopharmaceutical company, which will open its western China headquarters in the Chengdu high-tech zone, and Singapore Energy Group, a wholly owned subsidiary of Singapore Temasek Group that signed a contract with the management committee of the Three Kingdoms Creative Park and the Chengdu Wuhou Industry Investment and Development Group.

The contract calls for investing $20 million to start an energy service transformation project of the international urban design industry center.

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Air Conditioning, a subsidiary of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, signed agreement with the Chengdu High-tech Investment Group to build a joint venture to help construct the China-Japan (Chengdu) Regional Development Cooperation Demonstration Zone.

The China City Investment Attractiveness Index Report jointly released by the Global Times and the National Image Communication Research Center of Tsinghua University ranked Chengdu first in the 2021 Most Attractive Cities for Investment, and the city won the title of the 2021 Top 10 Most Satisfied Cities for Foreign Investment.

The evaluation index system of China's urban investment attractiveness is divided into six major sections: economic strength, human resources, location advantages, investment environment, people's livelihood security and internationalization.

The average score of these six indicators in Chengdu exceeds 95 points, of which two indicators of environment and internationalization are particularly outstanding.

Since 2021, Chengdu has seized the strategic opportunity in the construction of the Chengdu-Chongqing economic circle. It did so by developing a high-level open economy, expanding external channels, building a strong carrier of open cooperation and creating a first-class business environment.

The city is enhancing the ability of mobilizing international resources, accelerating the construction of a strategic hinterland of domestic circulation and a gateway hub for domestic and international dual circulation and raising its level of opening to the outside world to new highs.

As an important platform and carrier of an open economy, the comprehensive bonded zone in Chengdu is one of the main driving forces for the development of foreign trade.

At the beginning of 2021, the Chengdu International Railway Port Comprehensive Bonded Zone was officially closed for operation, providing a more convenient way for enterprises in Chengdu to deploy overseas markets. TCL Optoelectronics Technology (Chengdu) is the first production-oriented enterprise settled in the Chengdu International Railway Port Comprehensive Bonded Zone.

It utilizes the bonded function of the zone to produce key components such as TV movements and modules in the form of processing trade.

"The company has transferred 80 percent of its European orders to Chengdu, hoping to respond more quickly to the needs of European customers through the China-Europe train. More than 90 percent of the components required by TCL's six production lines in Poland's assembly base pass through the China-Europe train in Chengdu," said Sun Xiuhong, head of TCL's Chengdu base.

Sun said that after entering the Chengdu bonded zone, relying on the superimposed advantages of "opening channels plus open platforms, it is more conducive for enterprises to make full use of both domestic and international markets and resources, adding momentum and vitality to the development of enterprises.

Over the past 10 years, the Chengdu High-tech Comprehensive Bonded Zone has become a favorite of multinational companies.

About 40 companies such as Intel, Texas Instruments, and Molex Connector have settled in the area.

The area has formed a complete integrated circuit industry chain of manufacturing, packaging and testing and supporting projects. Smart terminal products such as the tablets and notebooks of Apple and Dell are also produced there. The area is an important production base for the world's tablet and notebook computers.

"Chengdu high-tech zone has provided great assistance for us when we selected the site, and we have received support from regulatory agencies such as Chengdu High-tech Comprehensive Bonded Zone and Chengdu Customs during the construction and commissioning period," said the person in charge of Diodes Incorporated's branch in Chengdu.

He said that in recent years, the output of Diodes Incorporated's Chengdu branch has increased at an annual rate of 15 percent.

The establishment of the group's Chengdu production base will further expand the group's production capacity and meet growing demand of the global semiconductor supply chain.

Thanks to the agglomeration and development of the electronic information industry, in the first 10 months of 2021, the high-tech park of the Chengdu High-tech Comprehensive Bonded Zone achieved a total import and export volume of 411.9 billion yuan.

While the comprehensive bonded zone serves the import and export trade of multinational enterprises, Chengdu has played a leading role in the International Cooperation Park and the Business and Innovation Center of China-Europe Cooperation, attracting the regional and functional headquarters of the top Global 500 enterprises and providing high standards for foreign-related enterprises and multinational institutions.

The city is home to the Chengdu Sino-French Ecological Park, Sino-German (Pujiang) SME Cooperation Park, Singapore-Sichuan Hi-Tech Innovation Park (SSCIP), Sino-Italian Cultural Innovation Industrial Park, China-South Korea Innovation and Entrepreneurship Park and China-Japan (Chengdu) Regional Development Cooperation Demonstration Zone.

With the continuous expansion of Chengdu's opening-up efforts and the improvement of a market-oriented, legalized and internationalized business environment, more international companies are investing in Chengdu.

More than 300 Fortune Global 500 companies are operating in Chengdu, ranking first in the central and western cities. Chengdu is home to 21 consulates, ranking third in the country and first in the central and western regions.