In 2017, internet giants including Huawei, Suning and Alibaba have signed strategic cooperation agreements respectively with Sichuan government, which expands the connectivity of the internet industry in Southwest China's Sichuan province.
Chen Xinyou, deputy to China's National People's Congress (NPC) and director of Sichuan Provincial Economic and Information Commission, said in an interview with NBD that large enterprises starting businesses in Sichuan will drive the development of Sichuan province through their openness and expansion. Those enterprises can also create better development environment here in Sichuan.
In his opinion, the reason why the internet giants chooses to invest in Sichuan lies in strengths of cost and talent pool here. The companies eye the new opportunities brought by "Belt and Road" Initiative. This is the start for Sichuan and those enterprises to cooperate and achieve development hand in hand.
Chen added, Sichuan has some edges over coastal cities in terms of cost. Yet the biggest advantage of Sichuan is its talent pool. Enterprises here can see the support given by professionals in an all-round manner. As the center in SW China, Sichuan boasts a market of 90 million people and reaches out to over 300 million people. Most importantly, "Belt and Road" put Chengdu at the forefront of opening up, which exploits the market potentials.
As Huawei struck the agreement with Sichuan Government, Huawei's core competence, software development cloud platform is to set up in Chengdu. At that time, its design and R&D tools will be made public, which will provide an advanced platform for talents of innovation and entrepreneurship in Chengdu.
What's more, Sichuan is to set up the pilot free trade zone, which lays the foundation for Sichuan to develop open economy and introduce companies of openness, said Chen.
Email: gaohan@nbd.com.cn