Chongqing Liangjiang New Area

Chongqing is at the confluence of the Yangtze River and the Jialing River. (Photo by Huang Gang)

From China Daily

Chongqing Liangjiang New Area was established on June 18, 2011

First national-level development area in inland China

It is the first national-level development area in inland China, and the third nationwide after Shanghai Pudong New Area and Tianjian Binhai New Area.

Liangjiang New Area is located north of the Yangtze River and east of the Jialing River. It has three administrative areas: Jiangbei District, Beipei District and Yubei district, with a total area of 1,200 square kilometers, of which 550 square kilometers could be developed.

The state council has designated five strategic orientations for the new area: demonstration area for scientific development, gateway of the inland region, a pilot zone for urban-rural reform, an advanced manufacturing and modern service center, and a financial center and innovation center in the upstream Yangtze River.

Chongqing’s Party Committee and the Chongqing Municipal Government attaches high importance to the development and opening up of Liangjiang New Area.

Zhang Guoqing, mayor of Chongqing Municipality, serves as the group leader of Liangjiang New Area Development and Construction Leadership Group.

Liangjiang New Area Administrative Committee

Liangjiang New Area Administrative committee works for the economic development and construction of the area with unified coordination, policies, planning and publicity. The area will promote coordinated reform and opening up with Jiangbei District, Beipei District and Yubei District.

The Chongqing Municipal Committee and the Chongqing Municipal Government decided that Liangjiang New Area’s Party Work Administrative Committee will administrate eight sub-districts including Yuanyang, Renhe, Tiangongdian, Dazhulin, Lijia, Jinshan and Kangmei, with a total area of 130 square kilometers.

Liangjiang New Area’s Administrative Committee will guide seven counties, including Yuzui Town, Fusheng Town, Guojiatuo Subdistrict in Jiangbei District, Longxing Town, Shichuan Town in Yubei District, and seven towns in Beipei District,with a total area of 44 square kilometers.

Liangjiang New Area will be in charge of the economic development of Chongqing Bonded Tariff Group, Chongqing Jiangbeizui Investment Group, Chongqing Yuelai Investment Group, Guoyuan Port and Cuntan Port of Chongqing Port Logistics Group.

Jiangbei District, Beipei District and Yubei District are in charge of the regions’ social affairs and other administrative issues.

Liangjiang New Area administers 11 companies. They are Liangjiang Group, Liangjiang Bonded Tariff Port Group, Jiangbeizui Investment Group, Yuelai Investment Group, Yufu Company, Longxing Company, Shuitu Company, Cloud Computing Company, Liangjiang Financial Company, Liangjiang Aviation Industry Investment Group.

Yufu, Longxing and Shuitu Industrial Areas are administrated jointly by Liangjiang New Area and Jiangbei, Yubei and Beipei districts according to their capital input of 55:45.

Liangjiang New Area has five strategic advantages. It is the first national-level new area in inland China, and the biggest tariff bonded area with the largest imports and exports in inland China. It is a national transportation hub that combines water, road and air. It is also an important area for the China-Singapore (Chongqing) Strategic Initiative on Connectivity. It also plans to apply for free trade zone status.

Liangjiang New Area has two areas: an urban core area and an urban development area. It is an important battlefield for Chongqing’s opening up, reform, manufacturing and services.

The aim of Liangjiang New Area

Liangjiang New Area seeks to “establish another Chongqing Municipality, another Chongqing industry and another Chongqing main city” and thus to build a new area with sound infrastructure, high-end industries, a safe environment and international influences.

This aim will be fulfilled in three steps. The 12th Five Year Plan (2011-2015) laid a solid foundation for building platforms and cultivating industries. The 13th Five Year Plan (2016-2020) will strengthen industry and open up. The 14th Five Year Plan (2021-2025) will focus on enhancing influences.

Jiangbeizui Financial Center will be a cluster of financial institutions including banks, security, insurance and commodity exchanges.

It will work on high-tech industries like cloud computing, information technology, pharmaceuticals, robots and smart manufacturing.

The urban industries will mainly be software, research and development, commerce and exhibitions, logistics and processing.

Liangjiang works hard on processing trade, tariff bonded trade, modern logistics, airport economy, and high-end equipment.

The zone will work on three pillar industries: automobiles, information technology and high-end equipment. It will also develop ten strategic emerging industries, ranging from robotics and smart devices to energy conservation and environmental protection.

Liangjiang will also work on financial services, software design and service outsourcing, cross-border e business and settlement, tariff bonded exhibition and trade, headquarter economy and transit trade.

Since its establishment in 2011, Liangjiang New Area has been working hard to lay a solid foundation, cultivate its industries and open up.

Liangjiang will continue to improve infrastructure. So far it has invested 595.4 billion yuan on fixed asset investment, including over 200 billion yuan for infrastructure. It has also constructed 519 kilometers of roads, of which 252 have been opened. Liangjiang’s other infrastructure construction projects include airports, railroads, ports, bridges, water, and electricity.

The Lianglu Cuntan Tariff Bonded Port has established a tariff bonded logistic base with a focus on smart terminal industrial clusters. Guoyuan Port has a processing ability of 1.2 million TEU, and is accelerating multi-mode transport hub development.

The Jiangbeizui Financial Center is half constructed and is attracting more and more financial institutions. The Yuelai International Exhibition Center is also expanding its influence.

A window for inland opening-up

Liangjiang’s role as a window for inland opening-up will be further implemented with the development of cooperation between China, Singapore, and Korea.

Liangjiang has attracted 2,740 business contracts with a value of 1,068 billion yuan, of which $26 billion is foreign capital.

A total of seven automobile giants including Chang’an, Beijing Hyundai and Shanghai GM have manufactured 3.7 billion cars, one million gearboxes, and 4.5 million engines, with a value of 470 billion yuan.

Display panel manufacturers such as BOE and Lebold, electronic terminals such as Hai’er and core supporting companies such as Corning, AT&S and SK are all in Liangjiang, forming a complete information industry system.

Strategic emerging industries such as general aviation, robots and cloud computing have gained rapid development from scratch. Modern service industries including finance and logistics are also developing fast.

Liangjiang New Area’s economy is enjoying sound development. Its GDP increased from 79.8 billion yuan in 2009 to 202 billion yuan in 2015, with an annual increase rate of 18.3 percent. Fixed assets investment increased from 5.29 billion to 19.78 billion yuan.

Its imports and exports increased from $ 3.37 billion to 196.4 billion yuan. The actual inflow of foreign capital increased from $1.26 billion to $4.16 billion.

After five years’ development, Liangjiang New Area has the capacity to attract major projects and better allocate resources.

During the 13th Five Year Plan, Liangjiang New Area will adhere to the five development principles of innovation, coordination, greening, sharing, and opening up, making development a top priority and deepening reform.

The area will enhance reform on the supply side and excel in Chongqing Municipality’s social and economic development.

It works hard on economic development, hoping that the regional GDP will double in 2020 compared with 2010, and show an annual increase rate of over 13 percent.

Liangjiang New Area will strive to be a pilot zone for reform and opening up, taking an active role in the country’s “Belt and Road” initiative and the Yangtze River Economic Development Strategy. It will also promote the China-Singapore (Chongqing) Initiative of Strategic Connectivity.

Liangjiang New Area is expected to extend to an area of 300 square kilometers with a population of 2.9 million.

It hopes to be an important advanced manufacturing base in inland China with automobiles, electronic information and equipment manufacturing as its three pillars.

By 2020, its industrial added value will reach 200 billion yuan, with Industrial Enterprises above Designated Size growing to one trillion yuan. Strategic emerging industries are expected to take up more than 35 percent of the total industrial value.

Liangjiang aims to be a modern service industry base that serves both manufacturing and daily life. Its goal is to have a total import and export profile of 400 billion yuan by 2020, with 150 billion yuan from the service trade.

Liangjiang hopes to be a cluster of innovation and science and technology research. It has set the goal that by 2020, R&D will account for more than three percent of the region’s GDP, and that finance will take up more than 13 percent.

Liangjiang intends to be a core base for financial institutions in west China and an off-shore financial center with significant activity.