Liangjiang New Area: High-return Zone for Foreign Investment

-- Over 30 bln dollars of absolute import-export value

CHONGQING, China, Feb. 14, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Chongqing, known as China's Chicago, is becoming a region with high returns for foreign investment. The EU, ASEAN and Hong Kong, with expanding rates of 36%, 34.6% and 10.3 times in the city's fastest growing Liangjiang New Area, have turned into the three major investors of the area's 30.5-billion-dollar import-export business. This makes the western market a strategic hinterland for the emerging Chinese market to attract more influential multinational enterprises.

Liangjiang New Area is the first such area set up inland by the Chinese Government to deepen reform and promote the domestic market, after Pudong New Area and Binhai New Area. Catching eyes from around the world, it sits along the Yangtze River and the Silk Road Economic Belt, becoming an international hub linking the Chinese market with Central Asia and the EU market.  

Consecutive Growth of Absolute Import-export Value

During the 2014 Spring Festival holiday, Chongqing Customs worked overtime on the cargo clearance of Liangjiang New Area. In Lianglu Cuntan Bonded Port Area and Xiyong Comprehensive Bonded Area alone, import-export goods amounted to 122,000 tons, worth approximately 840 million dollars, including 86,700 laptop computers and 70,000 LCDs that were exported.

On January 23, 2014, the designated port for fruit entry to Chongqing opened in Jiangbei Airport, marking a new step for Liangjiang New Area to build a general clearance system. Along with the gradual improvement in functions like logistics, finance, exhibition and cloud computing, as well as the rapid development in processing and service trade, the new area's electronic information and automobile industries have progressed as integral parts of the global market, serving as an impetus for the area's growth in the import-export business.

Liangjiang New Area has witnessed a high growth in foreign trade import-export for three consecutive years. Its total import-export volume rose from less than 10 billion dollars in 2011 to over 20 billion dollars in 2012, and to 30.5 billion dollars in 2013, with year-on-year growth of 43%. Also, its absolute value outstripped those of Shaanxi, Yunnan and Guizhou, which were 20 billion dollars, 25.8 billion dollars and 8.2 billion dollars respectively, beginning to exert an influence as an inland opening portal.

According to statistics, in 2013, the import-export value created by foreign-funded enterprises in Liangjiang New Area reached 12.31 billion dollars with an increase of 1.2 times. Respectively, exports and imports represented 90.6 billion dollars and 32.5 billion dollars, up 1.7 times and 57.5%, reflecting the promising return on foreign investment in the new area.

Fast-growing Foreign Trade in Central and Western China

In 2013, the growth rate of foreign trade in the country's central and western areas was higher than that of the eastern area, indicating that central and western China are undergoing rapid development in foreign trade.