Chongqing- Chengdu, and Chongqing should build a pacesetter for inland opening-up in Western China, enhance their cooperation on industrial innovation, and advance infrastructure interconnection, thus jointly building an integrated open market, said Xu Sitao, chief economist and partner of Deloitte China, in a written interview on Friday.

Xu Sitao, chief economist and partner of Deloitte China. (Photo/ Secretariat of the Chongqing Mayor's International Economic Advisory)

Exploiting location advantages

Xu said that by virtue of their location advantages in the Yangtze River Economic Belt, Chengdu and Chongqing could utilize open channels such as the Yangtze River Golden Waterway, China Railway Express, and the New International Land-Sea Trade Corridor (ILSTC), and leverage the policy support for open platforms such as Liangjiang New Area, Tianfu New Area as well as the free trade zones.

By doing so, Chengdu and Chongqing can facilitate investment attraction and trade liberalization and build a world-class business environment.

"Giving full play to their location superiority under the Belt and Road Initiative, both places will jointly build a pacesetter for inland opening-up in Western China," said Xu. "This creates new advantages in opening-up, and promotes the development of Chengdu-Chongqing economic circle."

Liangjiang New Area and Tianfu New Area have formed the eight major industry flagship alliances of the Chengdu-Chongqing economic circle. (iChongqing file photo)

Improving cooperation mechanisms

In addition, Xu emphasized that Chengdu and Chongqing must perfect their cooperation mechanisms to enhance their collaboration on industrial innovation.

For example, both regions can strengthen industrial matchmaking and cooperation and leverage their respective advantages.

Xu thinks they could gradually establish a development mechanism of industrial cooperation and supporting facilities construction from the overall perspective of the entire industrial chain and regional development.

Meanwhile, both regions should also strengthen the industry specialization within the city agglomerations to avoid serious homogenization, possibly leading to the waste of resources in investment attraction and industrial layout between the two places.

Coordinating the development of surrounding cities

Xu added that the Chengdu-Chongqing economic circle should clarify the functions of each city, optimize the spatial development pattern of the Chengdu-Chongqing City Cluster, and coordinate the development of small and medium-sized cities around Chongqing and Chengdu while continuing to develop the two core cities, thus realizing the rise of central China.

Furthermore, they should promote the interconnection of major transportation infrastructures, improve traffic conditions through developing major transport means such as water, land, and air transportation, and further develop the transportation network of the Chengdu-Chongqing city cluster.

With these efforts, both places will lay a solid foundation for regional coordinated development and facilitate the flows of people, materials, and business between city agglomerations.

A picture of Chongqing. (iChongqing/ Vivian Yan)