Sing "A Tale of Two Cities" to Build an Economic Circle - Interview with Tang Liangzhi, Deputy Secretary of the Chongqing Municipal Party Committee and Mayor

Xinhua News Agency, Chongqing, October 22 Title: Singing "A Tale of Two Cities" to Jointly Build an Economic Circle -- Interview with Tang Liangzhi, Deputy Secretary of the Chongqing Municipal Party Committee and Mayor

Xinhua News Agency reporters Li Yong and Zhao Yufei

The "Outline of the Planning plan for the construction of the Twin Cities Economic Circle in the Chengdu-Chongqing Region" issued by the CPC Central Committee and the State Council was released on the 20th. As one of the dual cores of Chengdu and Chongqing, how can Chongqing implement the planning outline, cooperate with Sichuan to sing the "Tale of Two Cities", jointly build an economic circle, and create an important growth pole and a new power source to drive high-quality development across the country? A Xinhua reporter interviewed Tang Liangzhi, deputy secretary of the Chongqing Municipal CPC Committee and mayor.

Reporter: Please talk about your feelings about the public release of the planning outline.

Tang Liangzhi: On January 3 last year, General Secretary Xi Jinping presided over the sixth meeting of the Central Financial and Economic Commission and delivered an important speech, emphasizing the need to promote the construction of the twin-city economic circle in the Chengdu-Chongqing region and form an important growth pole for high-quality development in the western region; on October 16 last year, General Secretary Xi Jinping presided over a meeting of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee to review the "Outline of the Planning for the Construction of the Twin-City Economic Circle in the Chengdu-Chongqing Region". General Secretary Xi Jinping's important speech provides a fundamental basis for promoting the construction of the twin-city economic circle in the Chengdu-Chongqing region and points out the way forward. After the public release of the planning outline, the cadres and masses of Chongqing were greatly inspired and encouraged, and they must bear in mind the entrustment of General Secretary Xi Jinping, be grateful and forge ahead, and vigorously promote the construction of the twin-city economic circle in the Chengdu-Chongqing area.

The first is to profoundly grasp the strategic deployment of the Party Central Committee, firmly grasp the strategic positioning of "two centers and two places", and promote the construction of the twin-city economic circle as a practical action to enhance the "four consciousnesses", strengthen the "four self-confidences", and achieve "two safeguards", based on the new development stage, completely, accurately and comprehensively implement the new development concept, and actively serve and integrate into the new development pattern.

The second is to firmly establish the concept of integrated development, strengthen strategic coordination, policy convergence and work docking with Sichuan, strengthen dual-core leadership and regional linkage, and work together to sing the "Tale of Two Cities" and jointly build an economic circle.

The third is to accelerate the construction of Chongqing into an international, green, intelligent, and human-cultural modern city under the leadership of building a new model of high-quality development and high-quality life, and strive to play a supporting role in promoting the large-scale development of the western region in the new era, play a leading role in the joint construction of the "Belt and Road", and play an exemplary role in promoting the green development of the Yangtze River Economic Belt.

Reporter: How to understand the strategic significance and strategic positioning of the construction of the twin-city economic circle in the Chengdu-Chongqing area?

Tang Liangzhi: Promoting the construction of the twin-city economic circle in chengdu and Chongqing is a major strategic support for promoting the formation of a regional economic layout with complementary advantages and high-quality development under the new situation, and a major measure to build a new development pattern with the domestic cycle as the main body and the domestic and international dual cycles promoting each other.

The strategic significance of the construction of the twin-city economic circle in the Chengdu-Chongqing region can be understood from three aspects: From the perspective of coordinated regional development, it is conducive to enhancing the population and economic carrying capacity of the Chengdu-Chongqing region and forming an important growth pole for high-quality development in the western region; from the perspective of expanding opening up, it is conducive to building a strategic highland for inland opening up and a new base for participating in international competition, and helping China to form a new pattern of opening up to the outside world with linkage between land and sea and in both directions; from the perspective of ecological environmental protection, it is conducive to guiding the population of ecological function zones to urban clusters. Protect the ecological environment in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River and the western region.

The central government has given the Chengdu-Chongqing area the strategic positioning of "two centers and two places" to the twin-city economic circle in chengdu and chongqing, which has given a major mission and created major opportunities for a new round of development in the chengdu-Chongqing region.

Among them, the construction of an important economic center with national influence requires Sichuan and Chongqing to jointly build an important national advanced manufacturing base and a modern service industry highland, improve the ability to participate in global resource allocation and overall economic efficiency; build a scientific and technological innovation center with national influence, require Sichuan and Chongqing to give full play to the advantages of scientific and educational talents and characteristic industries, and build an important national demonstration zone for scientific and technological innovation and collaborative innovation; build a new highland for reform and opening up, and require Sichuan and Chongqing to take the lead in comprehensively deepening reform and expanding opening up, forming the "Belt and Road". The yangtze river economic belt and the strategic hub for the linkage development of the new land-sea corridor in the west; the construction of a livable place for high-quality life requires Sichuan and Chongqing to promote common prosperity with more effective measures, and to build a high-quality urban agglomeration that is inclusive, harmonious, beautiful and livable, and full of charm.

Chongqing will persist in planning one domain from the overall situation, serving the overall situation with one domain, seizing the opportunity, taking advantage of the momentum, grasping the implementation with the spirit of "nailing nails", and continuously moving towards the set goals.

Reporter: Focusing on promoting the construction of the twin-city economic circle in the Chengdu-Chongqing region, what actions have Chongqing and Sichuan taken in cooperation? The result?

Tang Liangzhi: In the more than a year since the central government proposed to promote the construction of the twin-city economic circle in the Chengdu-Chongqing region, under the strong leadership of the Party Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping as the core, Chongqing has set up a leading group headed by the main responsible comrades of the municipal party committee, and established a four-level cooperation mechanism with Sichuan, including a joint party-government joint meeting, an executive vice provincial mayor coordination meeting, a joint office, and a special working group, and signed a total of 252 cooperation agreements and implemented 67 major cooperation projects.

We insist on putting transportation first and working together to build a modern infrastructure network. The China-Europe Express (Chengdu-Chongqing) has run more than 3,800 flights, and the new land-sea corridor in the west has reached 311 ports in 106 countries (regions); the world-class airport cluster is accelerating construction, the construction of the Chengdu-Chongqing Central High-Speed Railway has started, and the Chongqing-Chongqing and Chengdawan high-speed railways have started; the number of Sichuan-Chongqing interprovincial expressways has increased to 14, and a total of 112,000 5G base stations have been built.

We adhere to industry leadership and coordinate the construction of a modern industrial system. Sichuan-Chongqing cooperates to build the Western Science City in the mode of "one city and multiple parks", promotes the comprehensive docking of key parks such as Liangjiang New Area and Tianfu New Area, and works together to build a comprehensive science center between Chengdu and Chongqing; and starts the construction of 10 cooperation platforms such as Sichuan-Chongqing Gaozhu New Area to accelerate the integration and development of manufacturing, finance, cultural tourism and other industries. At present, the global matching rate of the automobile and electronics industries in the two places exceeds 80%.

We adhere to the ecological priority of green development, and jointly build an ecological barrier in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River. Focusing on the implementation of the "double carbon" goal, Sichuan and Chongqing have compiled a carbon peak action plan, jointly implemented major projects for ecological protection and restoration of the main stream of the Yangtze River, carried out special rectification of transboundary river pollution and joint prevention and control of air pollution, and established a horizontal ecological compensation mechanism for river basins. From January to September this year, the water quality of the Chongqing section of the main stream of the Yangtze River was generally excellent, and the number of days with excellent air quality in the city reached 247 days, of which the number of days with "excellent" air quality was 115 days, an increase of 15 days year-on-year.

We adhere to the people's livelihood and work together to promote the standardization and facilitation of basic public services. Sichuan and Chongqing jointly issued and implemented the action plan for convenient life in the twin-city economic circle, jointly issued a list of matters for government services "Sichuan-Chongqing Tongtong Office", established a joint prevention and control mechanism for the new crown pneumonia epidemic, and jointly built a national regional medical center and a national medical center. At present, 210 government services in Sichuan and Chongqing have achieved "one network communication office".

The construction of the twin-city economic circle in the Chengdu-Chongqing region has effectively promoted the economic and social development of Chongqing. Last year, Chongqing's GDP reached 2.5 trillion yuan, an increase of 3.9%. In the first three quarters of this year, the regional GDP reached 1,995.2 billion yuan, an increase of 9.9%, and an average growth of 6.2% in two years. The city's economy is stable and progressive, the momentum of high-quality development continues to increase, and the "14th Five-Year Plan" has started well.

Reporter: In the future, in what ways will Chongqing promote the construction of the Twin Cities Economic Circle?

Tang Liangzhi: Promoting the construction of the twin-city economic circle in the Chengdu-Chongqing region is a major mission entrusted to Sichuan and Chongqing by the Party Central Committee, and a major opportunity for the development of Chongqing. We will concentrate on doing a good job in Chongqing's own affairs, fully implement the important instructions and requirements put forward by General Secretary Xi Jinping to Chongqing, accelerate the construction of a coordinated development pattern of Chongqing's main urban metropolitan area, the urban agglomeration of the Three Gorges Reservoir Area in northeast Chongqing, and the urban agglomeration in the Wuling Mountains in southeastern Chongqing; make concerted efforts to do a good job in Sichuan-Chongqing cooperation, fully implement the planning outline, and further promote infrastructure interconnection, industrial development cooperation and coordination, ecological and environmental protection joint construction and joint governance, reform and opening up to promote common progress, urban and rural construction, and public service co-construction and sharing. Work together to create a high-level model of regional cooperation and promote the formation of a powerful and distinctive twin-city economic circle in the Chengdu-Chongqing region. (End)