CHENGDU, Dec. 2 (NBD) -- China's Southwest metropolis Chengdu, capital city of Sihcuan province, has been endowed by State Council with the mission "national central city" for its future development.

According to a list of new first-tier cities published by CBNweekly in April, Chengdu seizes the first place leading its rival cities Hangzhou, Wuhan, Tianjin, Nanjing and Chongqing, with growing momentum right after traditional first-tier cities Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen.

From aforementioned list, 10 cities are categorized members of "Trillion Group" based on GDP for reference. Opinions go around that status of traditional first-tier cities Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen are being challenged by "emerging rivals" such as Chongqing, Chengdu, Tianjin, Wuhan, Suzhou and Hangzhou, those generally viewed as prospective first-tier cities in the years to come. 

Ni Pengfei, director of Research Center for City and Competitiveness Chinese Academy of Social Science, recalled that he had proposed Chengdu as "West Pivot" in China's development before. With China's rapid emerging momentum and accelerating Europe-Asia integration, Chengdu is obviously playing a significant pivotal role in expediting China's "One Belt One Road" strategy. 

Ni also mentioned that Chengdu is undergoing transformation from factor-driven to innovation-driven stage in its competitiveness development. Compared to factor-driven stage basically relying on labor force and population, innovation-driven demands intellectual assets, to breed and draw in numbers high-profile talents, a way similar to that of U.S. Silicon Valley. Some universities in Chengdu are quite clear in their development focuses and operate with rapid improvement.