The Changing Face Of Chengdu

Best known as the home of pandas, the business scene in the Sichuan capital is anything but black and white

- Crystal Reid

First inhabited more than 4,000 years ago in the 18th to tenth centuries BC, Chengdu is an ancient city with modern means. The capital of China’s southwestern Sichuan province, its glass-fronted skyscrapers loom large beyond the sweeping eaves of a regenerated old town, while multi-lane highways stretch long and straight in contrast to the milky-green, meandering Jin River.

Surrounded by the fertile lands of the Sichuan Plain and overlooked by the Tibetan Plateau, Chengdu has long been dubbed the “Land of Abundance” thanks to the bountiful vegetables, meat and fish produced here. Now, as one of the most important economic hubs in China, it is business opportunities that are growing fast and sustaining this city of around 16 million people.

In recent years, Chengdu has benefited from a flurry of domestic and international investment thanks to President Xi Jinping’s signature One Belt One Road initiative, which seeks to reopen trade routes along the ancient Silk Road and spread economic growth towards the “wild west” of China. City officials found that this plan dovetailed nicely with already established policies of the Yangtze River Delta Economic Zone, ultimately resulting in speedy development, local innovation and international interest.

Today, the business landscape is typified by the IT back offices and R&D centres of global giants such as Siemens, Nokia, SAP, IBM, Volkswagen and Apple alongside smaller boutique tech firms and start-ups. Some 41,000 new companies were registered in 2018 as Chengdu’s GDP reached a whopping 1.5 trillion yuan (£167 billion), rising by 8 per cent year-on-year, 1.4 per cent higher than the national average. Newer foreign start-ups are snapping at the heels of homegrown success stories such as Chengdu gaming firm Tap4Fun, beautifying phone app Camera360, and Huochebang, known as the Uber of trucking.

INTERNATIONAL OUTLOOK