Chongqing, in the heart of southwestern China and the nation's youngest municipality, is pulling out the stops to lure investment from home and abroad to revitalize its manufacturing industry and infrastructure.

Chongqing Deputy Mayor Wu Jianong is heading a 160-member delegation, including over 120 entrepreneurs, to the Eighth China International Fair for Investment and Trade (CIFIT) in the coastal city of Xiamen seeking potential industry partners and investors, reported China Daily.

The delegation numbers are double those of last year's fair, a testimony to the city's benefits reaped through annual attendance over the last eight years.

Real estate, food processing and pharmaceuticals, all involving huge foreign capital inflow, were a direct yield from previous fairs.

Chongqing reaped 18 contracts, worth some 600 million yuan (US$73.2 million), including US$20 million foreign capital from last year's event.

At the ongoing session, Chongqing is promoting 68 projects, including 15 key programmes - natural gas and chemicals, machine manufacturing, metallurgy, property and tourism among them - targeting foreign capital.

Chongqing has traditionally had a heavy industrial base, with sound manufacturing foundation. A period of stagnation hit certain of the State-owned enterprises (SOEs), in particular motor manufacturers at the turning period between 1980s and 1990s.

Wu, an economist by profession, who had been in charge of the industry sector for years before he took the investment and trade administration position, is very familiar with the stories of SOE restructuring.

"Good market perspective, reasonable co-operation costs and a pleasant local investment environment are the three major factors to effect the launch of the foreign capital," said Wu.

The introduction of big names, including Japan's Honda, Isuzu, Suzuki, and Mitsubishi, serves to inject fresh blood into the local SOE automakers.

Joint ventures manufacturing motorcycles, and related spares set up in Chongqing, quickly took a lead position in China in terms of the output and the quality of its motor products.

The excellent performance of the JVs in the early stages, mainly in the late 1980s and the beginning of the 1990s, helped attract more foreign investors, in an even larger investment range, to the city, said Wu.

Industry giants BP, Carrefour, Metro, Ericsson, Pepsi, Suez Water, B&S, Cummins, Mobil Oil from around the world have launched JVs or branches in Chongqing.

Britain's petrochemical giant BP plans to input some further US$250 million in its JV in Chongqing, encouraged by results for the previous years, revealed Wu.

US-based Briggs & Stratton Corp also announced its plan to expand in the city to produce more motor engines.

Their original entry can be traced back to the late 1980s, though the current JV of B&S (Chongqing) Engine Co Ltd was established last November.

A recent survey by the World Bank shows that Chongqing tops other cities in China in developing the investment environment.

The city also tells the story of the fast growing private enterprises which play a more and more significant role in the city's economy.

Among the city's total output of 4.6 million motors and 8 million motor engines last year, some 3 million vehicles and 6 million engines are manufactured by local private enterprise.

Wu predicts the share of the private sector in the city's gross domestic product will annually increase by 2 percentage points.

The current proportion of the private economy is 40 per cent, Wu said, and is expected to reach some 60 per cent by 2014.

(China Daily)