After taking a long, hard new look at its actual situation, Chengdu announced a new development orientation last December. It said it would work to become “a core area for western Chinese growth”, and that this was a necessary move when one considered its history, regional competition, and city competition.

China has several obviously large, regional economic blocks: the Yangtze River Delta, Pearl River Delta, Bohai Rim, and Chengdu-Chongqing Economic Zone. Its large metropolitan areas are: the Yangtze River Delta, Pearl River Delta, Bohai Rim, and Beijing-Tianjin-Tangshan, with some economists saying the Chengdu-Deyang-Mianyang-Leshan area could be a fifth.

But, even though the potential is clearly there, Chengdu still has a long way to go before it can become a core area for western economic growth. According to Dai Bin, the vice-chairman of the Sichuan Regional Economic Research Association, western China has a vast amount of land and low overall development and needs more economic growth areas and needs to use its experience, accelerate development, and narrow the gap between it and the eastern region.

Dai, who is also the head of Southwest Jiaotong University’s Center for Research on Regional Economy and Urban Management, thinks that Chengdu, of all the western cities, is one of the few with the necessary conditions for a core growth area western China. Based on the GDP of the major cities in western China in 2011, Chongqing is expected to have a GDP of one trillion yuan ($158.7 billion); Xi’an, on of 380 billion yuan; Kunming, 250 billion yuan; Urumqi, above 170 billion yuan; and Lanzhou, 136 billion.

In total output value, Chengdu is in the middle of the second echelon, which comprises cities below the provincial level and with the fiercest competition. It is only about a 10-billion-yuan gap between this and the third echelon and the cities can easily slip if they slack off just a little. Or they could move to the front rank of the second echelon and be a reserve force for the first echelon if they work harder.

That’s the situation Chengdu finds itself in. If it slows up even a bit, it could miss out on some opportunities. But, if it moves a bit faster, it just might take the lead. By making itself a core growth area for western China with greater concentration and drive, Chengdu appears to have dealt well with the regional competition and found an orientation that reflects its fighting spirit.

Being the best

In early Feb 2012, the Chengdu government’s Information Office said that the city has shown its potential to become a core growth area. In 2011, its GDP was 685.46 billion yuan, an increase of 15.2 percent over the previous year, with a growth rate of 0.2 percentage. Its GDP surpassed that of Wuhan and Qingdao and put it in fourth place among the 15 cities below the provincial level, up two places from the previous year. The top three are Guangzhou, at 1.23 trillion yuan; Shenzhen, at 1.15 trillion; and Hangzhou, 701 billion. In growth, Chengdu ranked first among the 15 cities, up three places from the previous year.

So, Chengdu is moving ahead in trying to become the best core growth area. The new development is its starting point and it is making an all-out effort to become a core growth leader. This is in line with its development strategy in the following: transportation, industrial multiplication, building new towns and improving old ones, three-circle integration, and total opening up.

Getting ahead regionally

On Oct 13 of last year, there was an air of jubilation in the Chengdu Economic & Technological Development Zone, when FAW-VW’s Plant 3 began production. This laid to trest the old idea of Chengdu as “the most vibrant car consumer in southwestern China, but not a producer”. With several of the world’s car giants, Chengdu had become China’s sixth major producer -- after Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Chongqing and Changchun -- with surprising speed.

According to a Municipal Statistics Bureau official, in 2011, Chengdu’s primary industry had 32.73 billion yuan in added value output, up 3.7 percent; secondary industry added value output of 314.39 billion yuan, up 19.8 percent; and tertiary industry output of 338.34 billion yuan, up 12.4 percent. The industrial mix had also been improved. Primary industry contributed 1.2 percent to overall economic growth; secondary, 58 percent; and tertiary, 40.8 percent.

Chengdu’s rapid development has attracted more major companies, with 207 from the Fortune Global 500, making Chengdu the first city in the west to attract 200 Global 500 companies. It wants to become the window through which the world gets to know western China best, and the first choice for domestic and global industries and for capital and talent.

China’s Western Development Strategy has made the western region a priority in the overall development of China and Chengdu, as a large centrally placed city, will assume an important position in national development.

With the new opening-up, Chengdu needs to work hard to stay ahead in regional competition, so it is running hard to become the core growth area of western China.