Land of Abundance

Sichuan taps Belt and Road for overseas partnerships By V. Apurva

It has the sixth highest GDP in China, the largest potential for hydropower generation and is the gateway not only to China’s west, but also to Southeast Asia’s developing markets. It’s also home to pandas.

But it’s not enough, and Sichuan, a southwestern province of China, is on a mission to climb the GDP and development indicator rankings in the country, using the Belt and Road Initiative.

“The land of abundance” is already hard at work. In 2016, Sichuan recorded a GDP of 3.2 trillion yuan ($464 billion). That’s a 7.7-percent growth on 2015. The total volume of imports and exports reached $49.33 billion; the auto sector output reached the million mark; 316 Fortune Global 500 companies have settled here.

“We are very high on the development rank in China and rank sixth in terms of GDP, but we can and will climb higher,” said Xiao Yonggang, Deputy Director of the Protocol and Information Division of the Department of Foreign and Overseas Chinese Affairs of Sichuan.

Kan Zelan, an official with the Sichuan Provincial Development and Reform Commission, explained that Sichuan’s primary, secondary and tertiary industries experienced profound transformations in 2016. It is the secondary and tertiary industries that contribute the most to the province’s economy.

Statistics released earlier this year show growth in the secondary and tertiary industries was double the growth of the primary industry. “The proportion of the tertiary industry amounts to 45.4 percent, larger than the proportion of the secondary industry, meaning that the economic growth pattern of Sichuan has changed from a focus on According to Kan, the provincial government is now paying more attention to the secondary industry, particularly information technology (IT), power generation equipment manufacturing, the auto sector and food processing.

“In recent years, Sichuan has attracted many top IT companies, for example, Intel and Foxconn. The total volume of our IT industry is around $100 billion. Electricity generation is also an important part of the secondary industry,” Kan said.

Located between the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau and the Sichuan Basin, the province has huge potential for generating hydroelectricity due to geographical advantages. “Sichuan is one of the largest provinces in China to produce clean energy, which is mainly from hydropower. Nearly all the equipment for power generation—hydro, wind, nuclear and solar— is manufactured in Sichuan. In terms of power generation equipment, the output has ranked No. 1 for seven years,” said Kan.

Also on the list of priorities is the auto industry, which ironically was “lost” in 1997, when Chongqing was carved out from Sichuan as a municipality directly under the Central Government. “At that time, the auto industry was moved to Chongqing, so over the last 20 years, we have had to start from zero,” said Kan.

In recent years, Sichuan has attracted automakers like Toyota, Volkswagen, Honda