The Sichuan Provincial Government approved the construction of Chengdu Tianfu New Area on Nov 16, 2011.

The new area aims to develop into a national economic development zone following four other state-level development zones, including the Shanghai Pudong economic and development zone, Tianjin Binhai economic and development zone, Chongqing Liangjiang economic and development zone and the Shanxi Xixian economic and development zone.

With a planning area of 1,578 square kilometers, the Chengdu Tianfu New Area is an inter-administrative region that includes the South Hi-tech Zone, Longquan county, Shuangliu county and Xinjin county in Chengdu, Pengshan county and Renshou county in Meishan city, and the county-level city of Jianyang in Jianzhang. Areas in the administrative region of Chengdu city account for 81 percent of the Chengdu Tianfu New Area's total.

The new area focuses on building a high-tech industrial base and the high-end manufacturing base. Upon completions they will house the new area's electronic information, new material, biotechnology, vehicle development and manufacturing industries.

Functional zone for new material industry The functional zone for new material industry is located in the southeast of Xinjin county, Chengdu, Sichuan province with a planned area of 33 square kilometers and is 23 kilometers away from Chengdu urban area. By 2010, the functional zone has realized a production value of 9 billion yuan ($1.42 billion).

The functional zone has with gas, water, power supply facilities and sewage disposal facilities. It has attracted more than 60 enterprises to settle here, including the China National Chemical Corporation and COFCO (Chengdu) Agri-Industries Co Ltd.

The COFCO (Chengdu) Industrial Park was founded based on the construction agreement between the COFCO (Chengdu) Co Ltd, the Chengdu municipal government and the Xinjin county government in February 2010.

The project, with a total investment of 2.2 billion yuan, is designed to establish the largest comprehensive processing base in Southwest China. It would feature functions of food processing, storage and logistics, according to Meng Fanjie, general manager of the COFCO (Chengdu) Co Ltd's project management division.

The first phase of the project will be completed in May 2012, enabling an annual processing capacity of 117,600 tons and a storage volume of 280,000 tons. Meng told China Daily the second phase will be put into production in two years. By then, the annual processing capacity and the storage volume will increase to about 1.5 million tons and 430,000 tons, with an annual income of 6 billion yuan.

This agricultural base in Xinjin's new material functional zone will also provide raw food materials for many of the reputed brands, including the famous bakery brands Holiland, Taoli and the Master Kong. The company also partners with Coca Cola and Pepsico by supplying syrup for their products in the Chengdu region.

Meng also said the Chengdu Tianfu New Area is an ideal platform for the company to open up the south-western Chinese market. Chengdu is the only inland city where the companies are establishing their own processing and production base. Chengdu provides an optimized transportation and logistics system which can be compared to those in the coastal and riverbank cities in China. When completed, three railway lines will be connected to the processing base directly from the Chengdu-Kunming railway line. The plan has been approved by the city's railway department.

With the rapid economic development of the Sichuan province together with its provincial capital Chengdu, the Southwest Chinese food and raw material market is facing an increasing larger gap between the production and consumer needs. By setting up in the Xinjin county of Chengdu, the company will provide employment opportunities to 1,000 people, help secure Chengdu's food safety and increase the city's food and oil varieties.

Chengdu International Automobile Town The Chengdu International Automobile Town is one of the key elements for development of the vehicle manufacturing industry of the Chengdu Tianfu New Area.

The automobile town is planned to develop a vehicle cluster of tens of billion yuan by the end of 2020, attracting reputed companies like Sichuan Faw Toyota Motor Co Ltd, Faw Volkswagen Automobile Co Ltd, and the Volvo Group.

The automobile town is located in the region of Chengdu's Economic and Development Zone that has attracted 38 World Top 500 companies and about 38 billion yuan in foreign directed investments (FDIs) in the recent five years.

Sichuan Faw Toyota Motor Co Ltd chose Chengdu for its advantage of being situated near industrial clusters. Mr Du, the company's manager of the management division told the China Daily that the automobile industrial cluster in Longquan will help reduce the production cost for the company. With more international automobile companies like Volkswagen in the region, they can exchanges management ideas and learn from each other. This will, in turn, will further promote the overall development of the manufacturing industry in the Chengdu Tianfu New Area. Chengdu's production base is the company's only one in Southwest China. The Sichuan Toyoto hopes to make good use of Chengdu's unique geographical location and enter the large market in Southwest China. Since the new base's establishment in the area, Sichuan Toyota has realized a sales income of 13 billion yuan in 2011, up by 4 billion from the 9 billion yuan in 2010.

Enjoying favourable government policies, the company will also help boost economic and social developments in the Longquan area. In 2011, the company contributed 2.6 billion yuan in taxes, ranking the third among all companies in the Sichuan province. The figure of year 2011 is expected to exceed 4 billion yuan. The company also hosted many social and charity activities including donating a hope school to Xinjin county and funding a class of excellent students from deprived families together with the Chengdu Charity Union.

With more world-renowned companies setting home in the Chengdu International Automobile Town, its vehicle production capacity is expected to reach 1 million by the end of 2015. It is projected to attain an annual sales volume of 390 billion and generate about 105 billion yuan for the Chengdu Tianfu New Area. Chengdu is predicting that it will see a stronger development incentive to become one of the most important economic hubs in Southwest China.

Edited by Tang Zhi and Rakhee