CHENGDU is pushing forward itself as a national central city, world-class cultural city and international metropolis in the recent years, promoting the establishment and contribution generated from the Sino-foreign cooperative parks.

The goal is in line with Premier Li Keqiang’s emphasis in the 2016 Government Work Report on creating new models for China’s inland and border areas, developing new overseas oriented industrial clusters and encouraging more overseas investment in the central and western regions.

Among them are technology-driven China-South Korea Innovation and Entrepreneurship Park, auto town-centered Sino-French Ecological Park and the hardware-focused Sino-German Small- and Medium-sized Enterprise Cooperation Park.

Ding Tianjun, director of Industrial Park Division at Chengdu Economy and Information Commission, said the strategic layout of those Sino-foreign industrial parks would help Chengdu integrate better into the “Belt and Road” Initiative.

During a visit to South Korea in October 2015, Premier Li and South Korean President Park Geun-hye agreed that the two countries would increase cooperation in innovation, intelligent manufacturing, and research and development in high-end technology and set up the Sino-South Korean Innovation Park in Chengdu.

Located in the Chengdu Hi-tech Industrial Development Zone, the park has attracted 48 startups with investments from Sichuan University, Southwest Jiaotong University, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China and companies from South Korea.

This April, Chengdu Hi-tech Zone Management Committee and its Bureau of Finance signed a strategic agreement as well as fund cooperation agreement with Korea Investment Partner Co, South Korea’s biggest venture capital company. The agreement brought a joint 500-million-yuan venture capital fund into the zone, pushing forward the establishment of Sino-Korean Innovation Parks.

Jingrong Start-up Hub, which sits in the core area of the park, has 18 incubators for startups such as 36kr and 3W Coffee. The park also aims to become a landmark project with international influence through collaboration between China’s mass entrepreneurship and South Korea’s creative economy.

Liao Xiaobo, the director of Innovation Center at Chengdu High-Technology Zone, said there would be more than 1,000 startups by 2018.

Green smart city

The auto town in the Sino-French Ecological Park will be expanded to include more mixed industries that deal with new energy, new materials and high-end technologies.

Before its expansion, the park that radiates a 77-square-kilometer areas in the north part of Chengdu Economic Technology Development Zone already boasted 11 international enterprises like Citroen, Volkswagen, Volvo and Toyota, as well as more than 300 industry-leading auto parts companies like Faurecia, Bosch, Henkel and Delphi.

Its complete chain of car industry accounts for 85 percent of the car production in Sichuan Province. It has the capability of producing about one million units of cars in a year to become one of the largest hubs of value output in western China.

Car production would be pushed even higher in the near future after the Chengdu unit of Dongfeng Peugeot Citroen Automobile Co is put into production. It was among the 56 major industrial projects undertaken by the Sichuan provincial government.

The plant, with initial investment of 12.3 billion yuan (US$1.84 billion), plans to have an annual production capacity of 360,000 models, most of them high-end sports utility vehicles and multi-purpose vehicles.

The park is also keen to have a greener image. It is working closely with French and European Union companies in the fields of ecological construction, energy saving and environmental protection.

“Our goal is to build the park into a model project of green and low-carbon development,” said Han Xu, director of the liaison office of the Administrative Committee of Chengdu Economic and Technological Development Zone, where the eco-park is located.

“With Sino-foreign industrial parks springing up around the country, the problem we face is to match the needs of foreign companies with our own industrial orientation,” Han said.

He added that in the case of Sino-French Ecological Park, a green smart city was the ultimate goal.

To reach that goal, the park has planned ecological belts and parks, a rainwater collection system and a greenway system to create an ecological environment. The park will use green technology, and promote the use of clean energy and energy-efficient vehicles, Han said.

Established the same year as the Sino-French Ecological Park, the Sino-German SME Cooperation Park in Pujiang County in southwestern Chengdu has an overall planned area of 30 square kilometers.

International approach

The first of its kind in western China, the park has attracted 48 companies that deal in precision machines and related industries. Some of the big names here are Bosch Power Tools and Bosch Packaging Technology Co.

The Bosch Group has set up its first Asia-Pacific R&D center for packaging technology in the park, Zheng Shan, spokeswomen of the Industrial and Investment Department of Pujiang Country said.

“For the first phase of infrastructure construction, we invested 10 million yuan in the first three months of 2016,” Zheng said. “We aim to build an industrial cluster of hardware worth over 100 billion yuan by 2025 in the area.”

Supporting facilities such as staff quarters and entertainment area will also be built in the neighborhood.

The concept of one-stop services also attracted US mattress maker Sealy, which sees Chengdu as a strategic location for its western China market.

“The natural environment and the support from country-level and municipal-level governments are impressive for foreign makers like us,” said Ma Changxin, regional general manager of Sealy’s West China Department. The company entered China in 2008 and built its third factory in Chengdu in 2015 after Shanghai and Beijing.

When asked why Sealy picked Chengdu, Ma said, “It is the purest land for investment.”