On the fifth day of the National Day holiday, “Chongqing’s First Eye” continued to launch a special program called “Joining Hands for a New Journey”.
75 years ago, what could China manufacture? There are only a few categories available. Nowadays, the C919 domestically produced large aircraft has entered mass production, and the automobile production has been ranked first in the world for 15 consecutive years. In the past 75 years, the industry has achieved a leapfrog growth from being “able to make” to being “well made”.
As one of the six major old industrial bases in China, Chongqing’s industry has been thriving along with the city. The Sixth Plenary Session of the Sixth Municipal Party Committee once again drew a “key symbol”, stating that by 2027, Chongqing’s total industrial output value should reach the “4 trillion” level, and the proportion of manufacturing added value to GDP should reach 28%. In the new journey, industry still needs to continue to shoulder the heavy burden. How to ‘go further’ with ‘a hundred feet of progress’? Today, let’s focus together.
There is a foundation! Urban heritage ‘accumulated and developed’
Walking into the Chongqing Industrial Museum during the bustling National Day holiday feels like crossing a time tunnel. A strong sense of time, with the weight of a hundred years of industrial history, spreads across the surface.
75 years ago, what could China manufacture? There are only a few categories available. Nowadays, the C919 domestically produced large aircraft has entered mass production, and the automobile production has been ranked first in the world for 15 consecutive years. In the past 75 years, the industry has achieved a leapfrog growth from being “able to make” to being “well made”.
As one of the six major old industrial bases in China, Chongqing’s industry has been thriving along with the city. The Sixth Plenary Session of the Sixth Municipal Party Committee once again drew a “key symbol”, stating that by 2027, Chongqing’s total industrial output value should reach the “4 trillion” level, and the proportion of manufacturing added value to GDP should reach 28%. In the new journey, industry still needs to continue to shoulder the heavy burden. How to ‘go further’ with ‘a hundred feet of progress’? Today, let’s focus together.
There is a foundation! Urban heritage ‘accumulated and developed’
Along the Wujiang River and deep into the mountains of Fuling, the “816 Project” hidden deep underground carries half a century of industrial memory and glory. For this old industrial base, the place with industrial relics is the most capable of ‘collecting a city’. Chongqing is an area rich in “hard industry” and has a solid industrial foundation. Building a modern industrial system, on top of the existing hard core production capacity, will also give rise to the “soft power” of core technologies and the new “Made in Chongqing” that combines software and hardware, charging forward and establishing a brand on a new journey.
The 2024 Sichuan Chongqing New Energy Motorcycle City Obstacle Race is the first new track in China specifically designed for new energy motorcycles. With a sounding horn, new energy motorcycles rushed out of the starting line one by one, conquering the winding and undulating terrain of Chongqing. Supported by the “Internet of Vehicles” throughout the entire process, the steep steps and continuous curves have become a testing ground for industrial products.
Time callback. 30 Changan Qiyuan vehicles crossed the Hulunbuir ice sheet, breaking the endurance limit of new energy vehicles in low-temperature environments. The expedition of 7 “Avita 11” vehicles to Mount Everest was a test step by step: testing the battery resistance, passing the power test, and testing the stable range… All of these constantly brought “Mountain City Manufacturing” into the field of vision and deeply rooted in people’s hearts, accepting more scrutiny and activating the spring water of industry.
Accumulating a solid foundation is a ‘hard work’, but how to make good use of it? Similarly, ‘test kung fu’. Taking automobiles as an example, Chongqing is a traditional automobile industry base, but in order to maintain its “leading position”, it cannot stand still, but must “make further progress”. Chongqing, from the “first city of cars” in the era of fuel vehicles, returned to the “first team” after switching tracks, taking 7 years. In the first half of this year, Chongqing produced 1.214 million cars, ranking first in car production among all cities in the country, returning to the position of “first city” after 7 years; Among them, the production of new energy vehicles has increased by 1.5 times, ranking first in the top ten “car manufacturing provinces and cities” in China in terms of growth rate. Behind these increments is the revitalization and upgrading of the industry.
There’s a wind! Industrial upgrading “Chongqing Intelligent Manufacturing”
On the commuting road surrounded by mountains and waters in Chongqing, cars are an important means of transportation. Chongqing ranks third in the country in terms of automobile ownership. Developing the automobile industry requires a market, a scene, and a foundation. Automobiles, with a long industrial chain, wide coverage, and numerous upstream and downstream connections, are the jewel in the crown of industry and the focus of industrial upgrading.
Walking into the Xilis Intelligent Factory, all you can see are waving robotic arms. Here, stamping a set of car parts only takes 5 seconds. On the final assembly line, a new car can be produced in just 2 minutes. Easy, efficient, time-saving and labor-saving – this is all people’s imagination about the “future factory”.
The automotive industry has always had multiple branches and a long industrial chain. A brand can drive several industrial chains. A ‘chain owner’ enterprise can empower several supporting industries. Taking the chain owner “Sailis” smart factory as an example, an industrial cluster has been formed around more than 40 component enterprises and 15 “specialized, refined, and new” enterprises, contributing over 80% to the “industrial growth” of the local area.
Automobiles are just one of the ‘heavy punches’, and the’ industrial city ‘is frequently striking hard, bringing about comprehensive industrial upgrading. The ‘industrial brain’ leads the upgrading of industries, while the ‘future factory’ realizes the ‘thoughts and ideas’ of the brain. Chongqing has vigorously laid out the “industrial brain” in the industrial field, and there are already many “future factories”. By 2027, Chongqing will have built 20 “industrial brains”. At least 20 categories of ‘Made in Chongqing’ will emit a more intelligent light.
China is a ‘manufacturing powerhouse’ and Chongqing is a ‘manufacturing hub’, but the manufacturing industry is also labeled as’ big but not strong ‘. Only by taking off this hat can we go further. From January to August, in the city’s fixed assets investment, industrial upgrading pushed a new outlet: investment in equipment, tools and instruments increased by 4.8% year on year, of which investment in industrial equipment increased by 8.5%. The ‘bird gun exchange’ campaign involves all aspects of the entire industrial sector, with industrial investment increasing by 14.1% in the first eight months. The continuous driving force, the “carriage” that drives the industrial economy, from January to August this year, the added value of industrial enterprises above designated size in the city increased by 8.3% year-on-year, 2.5 percentage points higher than the national average, and 2 percentage points higher than the same period last year, ranking 7th among provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities in China and 4th in the western region.
There is momentum! The industrial economy is making rapid progress
Shengtai Optoelectronics, located in Dazu District, has recently developed an ultra-thin camera with a thickness of only 2.01 millimeters, making it the thinnest in the world. This year, the company has launched over 10 series and hundreds of high-end products to the market in one go, and has established partnerships with seven major global mobile phone manufacturers.
Reform momentum and innovation surge. The new research and development mechanism in Chongqing revolves around industrial development, and the new quality productivity cultivated from it is being realized as industrial added value, promoting the rapid progress of the industrial economy. While being led by technology and empowered by digital intelligence, Chongqing’s industrial economy also has a key strategy – “heroes per mu”.
Entering the Chongqing Smart Industry Park located in Banan District, a 60 acre factory building will become the expansion base of the paper-making leader “Heng’an Group” in the southwest region. Prior to this, this was just an idle stacking yard. In order to improve the efficiency of industrial land, the park went to the “Heng’an” headquarters, tailored a plan, and won this 2 billion yuan investment expansion project.
The degree to which cities attach importance to industry can be seen from investment. Chongqing sits on the golden waterway and connects with the “the Belt and Road”, which opens up a new channel for land and sea trade. It has taken over a large number of industrial transfer projects “with strength”, and is desperately “seeding plants” on 82400 square kilometers of land. In the first half of the year, Chongqing’s industrial investment and infrastructure investment increased by 15.2% and 3.0% respectively, and together they drove the city’s investment growth by 5.2 percentage points. Chongqing’s industry has been refined into steel, and its industrial economy is also making rapid progress.
Chongqing’s industrial economy is sprinting towards “4 trillion yuan”, with confidence coming from its foundation and power driven by its “layout”. How to leverage comparative advantage and accelerate running? In the view of Zhan Yi, Associate Researcher at the Industrial Economics Research Institute of Chongqing Academy of Social Sciences, firstly, we need to optimize the stock, promote the expansion and quality improvement of 3 trillion yuan and 500 billion yuan industrial clusters, and develop 6 characteristic advantageous industries towards high-end, intelligent, and green development, leading and accelerating the development of strategic emerging industries and future industries, promoting the deep integration of scientific and technological innovation and industrial innovation, focusing on introducing expert teams, research institutes, and leading enterprises, accelerating the transformation and landing of scientific and technological achievements, and forming new quality productivity as soon as possible. The second is to activate the potential quantity. Focusing on the construction of the “33618” modern manufacturing cluster system, strengthening the construction of innovation platforms such as the four major science and technology innovation highlands, improving the transformation system of scientific and technological achievements, strengthening key core technologies and forward-looking disruptive technology research and development, enhancing the city’s industrial development momentum, cultivating a group of world-class enterprises, chain owners, leading enterprises, single champion enterprises, specialized and innovative enterprises, and forming a “rainforest ecology” where “towering trees” and “shrubbery” coexist and prosper.
Industrial development brings prosperity to all industries and attracts talented individuals
Development requires momentum, urban acceleration needs to ‘start’, economic quality improvement needs to ‘jump’, and industry is an important engine. A powerful and advanced industry can enable a city’s industries to sprout and flourish. From this, we can see countless’ urban opportunities’, but more importantly, we can look to the future. Just like our imagination of the ‘future factory’: creating more added value in limited time and space, using new technologies to serve production, and using new efficiency to serve life. In the prosperity of various industries, the flourishing of people can be synchronized with the pulse of the city. This is also the most anticipated ‘second half’ of industrial development. The world is restructuring its industrial chain and redefining global division of labor. In the future market share, “Made in China” needs to shift from pursuing “moderate content” to pursuing higher “gold content”. The same goes for ‘Made in Chongqing’.
(First Eye – Reported by Wu Shuang, Wu Jing, Li Yiding, Lin Weng Yiran from Chongqing Radio and Television)