Chongqing 'must continue' opening up

Chongqing will stick to the opening-up policy and continue to refine the investment environment for foreign investors, a senior official has announced.

"Chongqing is at a crucial stage of development and must continue its pace of opening-up," Zhang Dejiang, Party chief of Chongqing, said in a meeting with delegates from Saudi Basic Industries Corp.

Zhang added that the municipal government of Chongqing will continue to attract foreign investments to further boost development.

Zhang, who is also vice-premier of the State Council, was appointed Party chief of Chongqing on March 15, replacing Bo Xilai, who had been the Party chief of the municipality since November 2007.

The delegation of Saudi Basic Industries, led by its chairman Prince Saud bin Abdullah bin Thenayan Al-Saud, was in Chongqing for talks on new investment programs.

The corporation announced plans in October to build its new engineering thermoplastics compounding facility in the Chongqing Xiyong Micro-electronics Industrial Park. The facility is expected to be operational in 2013 and is aimed at customers in the southwest region, according to a press release on the corporation's website.

Foreign investment has already played a substantial role in pushing the development of Chongqing.

Data provided by the city's statistics bureau showed that more than $10 billion foreign investment was made in the city in 2011, a 66 percent increase from 2010 and almost one-fifteenth of the national total.

More than 200 of the world's top 500 enterprises have opened outlets in Chong-qing, Lan Qinghua, chief of the Chongqing statistics bureau, was quoted by Chongqing Daily as saying on March 15.

According to Lan, Chong-qing is building the largest laptop manufacturing base in the world, with major laptop makers such as HP, Acer and ASUS all having plants in the city.

In 2011, there were 24.07 million laptops produced in Chongqing, and the municipality's foreign exports and imports totaled $29.22 billion, with laptops equaling automobiles and motorcycles as the city's major export products, Lan said.