Chongqing a benchmark for developing modern finance

In 2023, the added value of the financial industry in Chongqing, Southwest China reached 259.1 billion yuan ($36.09 billion), accounting for 8.6 percent of the municipality's GDP.

This year, to become a financial center in western China, Chongqing will continue to focus on areas such as green finance, digital finance, financial openness, and inclusive finance. This will be done to improve the quality and efficiency of the city's modern industrial system and financial services.

In August 2022, Chongqing was approved to become the first provincial-level comprehensive pilot zone for green financial reform and innovation in the country. By the end of 2023, the balance of green loans in Chongqing exceeded 680 billion yuan, indicating an increase of over 160 billion yuan from the beginning of that year.

This year, Chongqing will take the lead in exploring the construction of a green, low-carbon financial system. For example, it will promote pilot projects for climate change adaptation in the Liangjiang New Area. It will also establish and improve trading markets for carbon emission rights, water rights, pollution discharge rights, and energy use rights, as well as expand the scale of loans for green parks, enterprises, and projects.

Chongqing will also improve its mechanism for sharing green information, establish and improve a database of green enterprises and green projects, and strictly control credit allocation for high-energy-consuming and high-emission projects.

In recent years, Chongqing has increased its efforts to establish digital financing service platforms, and by the end of 2023, these platforms had cumulatively assisted 300,000 small and medium-sized enterprises in obtaining credit.

Data show that last year, Chongqing achieved cross-border financing of approximately $1.7 billion, a year-on-year increase of 21.8 percent. The city's cross-border RMB receipts and payments reached 287.54 billion yuan in 2023, of which the actual cross-border RMB receipts and payments for current projects and direct investment was 270.86 billion yuan, ranking first in the Central and West China.