________.thumb_head

Oct. 17 (NBD) -- Chengdu, capital of southwestern China's Sichuan province, mulls building an industrial ecosphere after achieving three leaps from a provincial city to a regional central city and then to a national central city.

Building an industrial ecosphere is vital for a city's economy, said Fan Ruiping, Member of the Standing Committee of Sichuan Provincial Party Committee and Secretary of Chengdu Municipal Party Committee, at a recent investment promotion meeting.

The southwestern city is currently ramping up its efforts to build itself a national central city and set the stage to make itself a global city, Fan said. Work should be done to optimize the development environment and to make it a broad consensus that Chengdu is the top choice in Western China for willing investors.

Data show that in the past nine months this year, the provincial capital introduced 283 major projects with a total investment of about 628.6 billion yuan (95.4 billion U.S. dollars), representing a year-on-year increase of 158.8 percent. Of those, 26 projects worth around 51.5 billion yuan (7.8 billion U.S. dollars) are funded by Global 500 companies.

On October 10, healthcare giant Medtronic broke ground on its medical innovation center located in Chengdu Hi-Tech Zone.

Two days later, real estate behemoth Vanke inked a deal to invest an additional 200 billion yuan (30.4 billion U.S. dollars) in Chengdu to bolster the provincial capital's new industry city construction. The company will also set up its regional headquarter in Central and Western China here in Chengdu.

In addition to factories, urban infrastructure, education, and medical facilities are developing rapidly in Chengdu.

The city, at present, is boosting the construction of 66 industrial functional zones that span 22 districts and counties and cover industries such as advanced manufacturing, modern service, and modern agriculture.


Email: lansuying@nbd.com.cn 

Editor: Lan Suying