Liangjiang New Area in Southwest China's Chongqing municipality signed 28 projects totaling over 30 billion yuan ($4.4 billion) into effect and hired the first group of 11 global investment consultants at the 2023 Global Investment Promotion Conference held on January 11, marking the beginning of the new area's 2023 global investment promotion campaign.

A signing ceremony is held during the conference. [Photo provided to english.liangjiang.gov.cn]

The 28 projects are the first major projects to be signed into effect by the new area this year. Twenty manufacturing projects will receive a total investment of over 24.9 billion yuan, while eight service projects will receive 5.2 billion yuan. Projects focus on the intelligence-connected new energy vehicle industry, new-generation electronic information industry, life and healthcare industry, and high-end equipment industry.

Eleven investment consultants include renowned scholars such as Li Zexiang, a professor at HongKong University of Science and Technology, as well as senior management from leading industry players and consulting companies such as Sylvain Laurent, Director of Hopium France and former global vice president of Dassault Systemes, John Z. Zhang, senior vice president and general manager of Corning Display, and Denis Depoux, president of the global management committee of Roland Berger. Consultants will join Liangjiang and offer advice on how to attract more high-quality projects and talent from around the world.

The conference set up a smaller venue in Germany. Michael Schumann, chairman of the board of the German Federal Association for Economic Development and Foreign Trade (BWA), attended the event at the Berlin venue and delivered a speech.

Schumann said it is crucial for Germany and China to further cooperate in various fields such as manufacturing, environmental technologies, electromobility, and renewable energy generation and storage, which they have been pursuing for years.

Michael Schumann attends the conference at the German venue. [Photo provided to english.liangjiang.gov.cn]

Many German companies are looking for ways to cut costs, relocate parts of their production abroad, and open up new markets in Asia, according to Schumann. He said he believed there are great opportunities in places like Liangjiang New Area, which can offer companies attractive investment conditions and a good production environment.

Situated at the convergence of the Belt and Road Initiative and the Yangtze River Economic Belt, Liangjiang New Area serves as a gateway for inland opening-up in western China and is the country's first inland national-level development zone.

Liangjiang covers less than 1.5 percent of Chongqing's land area, but statistics show it contributes about 15 percent of Chongqing's total economic output and 30 percent of total imports, exports and utilized foreign investment, and is home to 50 percent of Fortune Global 500 companies operating in Chongqing.

Serving as a vital automobile manufacturing base in China and an important global intelligent terminal manufacturing base, Liangjiang New Area is building its automobile industry and electronic information industry into trillion-yuan-level industrial clusters. The high-end equipment industry, life and health industry, and digital economy are also being turned into 100-billion-yuan-level industries.

On top of opportunities valued at trillions of yuan across a number of industries, the new area provides a massive market, first-class business environment, and optimized policy support for enterprises looking to invest and grow in Liangjiang, according to Wang Yu, Deputy Director of the Administrative Committee and the member of the Party Working Committee of Chongqing Liangjiang New Area.