Chongqing - SFH General Manager Federico Gaiazzi said Chongqing's business environment is becoming ever attractive for foreign-invested companies to grow here during an exclusive interview with iChongqing on Monday.

Chongqing has changed a lot and still keeps changing fast, with all sorts of business opportunities and industry resources in both local and export markets, according to Federico Gaiazzi, general manager of the Saic Fiat Powertrain Hongyan Co., Ltd.

In order to stay relevant, SFH needs all the resources it could find here to compete with its local counterparts, "But this is a very important point for foreign companies and JVs to grow. Chongqing is becoming more and more attractive."

Despite the geographical constraint of being in inland China, the city still managed to be closely linked to the other domestic and global auto industry players, thanks to its mature international logistics channels.

"Chongqing is an area where the automotive industry is very well developed, and we can easily find suppliers and talents in the nearest region," said Gaiazzi.

Speaking of the Chengdu-Chongqing Economic Circle, Gaiazzi said it was a great opportunity to promote the idea of synergized economic development and to exploit the market's growing confidence in the western region.

"Depending on a specific country and region, you can find different clusters or centers of competence, but there are probably not that many megacities clusters as big as this one."

Gaiazzi referred to the forthcoming 14th Five-Year Plan period (2021 - 2025) as a "very important moment" for the automotive sector because it comes with a host of new technologies for consolidation and new challenges never had before.

Chongqing has great potential to benefit from the international trade agreements intergovernmental collaboration projects --- such as the Belt & Road Initiative, the Sino-Singapore Chongqing Demonstration Initiative on Strategic Connectivity, the New International Land-Sea Trade Corridor, and the China-Europe Freight Train services --- to build itself into an international logistics hub, he said.

Gaiazzi also thanked the local government's rapid response and timely support during last year's rampant COVID-19 epidemic. "We're obliged to shut down at first, but we're able to resume production only a few weeks later."

As a joint venture company founded in 2007, Saic Fiat Powertrain Hongyan Co., Ltd. (SFH) has three main shareholders from SAIC-IVECO Commercial Investing Co., Ltd. (SI), Fiat Powertrain Technologies Industrial (FPT), and Chongqing Machinery & Electronics (Group) Holding Co., Ltd. (CMEG).

According to an introductory statement on its official website page, it's one of China's biggest industrial engine manufacturers and a pioneering manufacturer of high-tech diesel engines with low emissions in the global market.