Games a financial winner for city

Chengdu is accelerating its development into an international consumer city, according to Li Yuping, an official with the Chengdu Municipal Bureau of Commerce in Sichuan province.

As a highly influential event and brand, the Chengdu FISU World University Games have injected fresh impetus into the city's endeavors to achieve this goal, added Li on Saturday.

She outlined that Chengdu's construction of an international consumer city comprises five main elements.

Firstly, by continuously strengthening its role as an international gateway hub, Chengdu is linking the global consumer supply chain.

With Tianfu International Airport now fully operational, Chengdu is the third city in China to boast two international airports. It is home to 23 consulates and 315 Fortune 500 enterprises.

The number of trains linking China to Europe from Chengdu and Chongqing exceeds 24,000, and Chengdu is on the frontier of opening-up, Li said.

In 2022, the scale of cross-border e-commerce transactions amounted to 91.4 billion yuan ($12.7 billion), while the import and export of services totaled $15.4 billion, she said.

Secondly, by continuously improving the reputation of the city, Chengdu is gaining global influence as a consumption center. In 2022, Chengdu's total tourism revenue was 181.4 billion yuan, catering revenue was 144.5 billion yuan, the total scale of the sports industry exceeded 100 billion yuan, the output value of the music industry was 50.3 billion yuan, and the total revenue from conventions and exhibitions was 71.1 billion yuan. The integration of various consumption formats has made Chengdu one of the most dynamic cities in China, Li continued.

Thirdly, in line with demand for products and services related to healthy living, Chengdu is shaping a new market of high-quality consumption.

Chengdu has cultivated 42 city- and regional-level business districts, 63 national- and provincial-level commercial pedestrian streets, 32 city-level demonstration consumption scenarios, Li said.

The fourth element is Chengdu's focus on transforming scientific and technological innovation into a new type of consumer innovation platform.

Chengdu is actively promoting scientific and technological innovation, with 139 national scientific and technological innovation platforms, 11,500 national high-tech enterprises, more than 40,000 e-commerce enterprises, 118 platform-based online merchants, while its urban innovation index has risen to 29th in the world, Li said.

And lastly, Chengdu's goal of building an international consumption destination has led to a new consumption pattern of coordinated regional development.

The Chengdu-Chongqing Economic Circle is included in the national plan for regional development, and Chengdu adheres to the practice of developing together with Chongqing, builds a linkage mechanism of resource sharing, platform and publicity interconnection, and realizing the exchange of government affairs, services and talents between the two sides.