Western (Chongqing) Science City. [File photo/iChongqing]

Chongqing - Chongqing delegation held a plenary meeting and decided to submit the suggestion to the 5th session of the 13th National People's Congress, asking for support to accelerate the construction of the Western (Chongqing) Science City on March 3.

Initial results

The delegation pointed out that the Western (Chongqing) Science City as a major initiative serves the needs of national innovation, an inherent requirement of promoting high-quality development and creating a high-quality life, as well as an urgent need to make up for the shortcomings of Chongqing's innovation development. It is also of great significance to promote the construction of the Chengdu-Chongqing economic circle.

In May 2021, the Tenth Plenary Session of the Fifth Communist Party of China Chongqing Municipal Committee decided to build the Western (Chongqing) Science City as the primary platform for scientific and technological innovation of Chongqing, focusing on the theme of science, facing the future development, linking the innovation of all fields, to create a modern city for living, working, learning and traveling.

Western (Chongqing) Science City has achieved initial results.

First, the landing of high-end innovation platforms has been accelerated. The super transient experiment facilities have been incorporated into the 14th Five-Year Plan of national major scientific and technological infrastructure projects. China's natural population biological resource bank and other scientific and technological infrastructures have been put into operation, and 17 scientific research platforms have been put into operation. Furthermore, Chongqing has been approved to build a national manufacturing innovation center and an overseas offshore innovation and entrepreneurship base.

The second result is the acceleration of the gathering of high-level talents. Western (Chongqing) Science City promoted the reform of the talent system, implemented the "Golden Phoenix" talent policy and "one case, one discussion" support, introduced more than 450 urgently needed talents. As a result, the number of academicians of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Chinese Academy of Engineering has increased to 8, the total number of human resources has increased to 116,400, and 4 scientific and technological achievements have won the National Science and Technology Award.

Third, the high-tech industry continued to grow. Western (Chongqing) Science City has cultivated 1,164 technology-based enterprises, 241 high-tech enterprises, 40 specialized enterprises above the municipal level, seven high-growth innovative high-tech enterprises. The output value of strategic emerging enterprises has increased to 25%.

Fourth, the quality of the city has been continuously improved. The construction of a number of key projects such as Science Avenue, Science Hall, and Science Park has been accelerated. Five rail transits, four mountain tunnels, and 91 arterial roads have been accelerated. The newly completed park area of the Chongqing High-tech Zone is 138,000 square meters, and the recently added green space is 960,000 square meters.

Fifth, the development environment is optimized. Western (Chongqing) Science City has promoted 53 reforms in 13 key areas and established a Chengdu-Chongqing Economic Circle Development Fund with a total scale of 30 billion yuan. It has also built the only express railway import and export project in China, the first cross-border e-commerce platform for foreign cultural and trade exchange in Chongqing. It has been approved as a national foreign trade transformation and upgrading base and a national processing trade industrial park.

Way to go

The delegation's suggestion pointed out that, at present, the Western (Chongqing) Science City construction is still in its infancy. In contrast to the requirements of the central government to make the Chengdu-Chongqing region into a science and technology innovation center with national influence, as well as the deployment and planning of the Western (Chongqing) Science City, there are still shortcomings that need to be filled.

The first is the lack of national strategic science and technology resources layout; the second is the lack of support from high-level research institutions; the third is the policy advantages of developing high-tech enterprises are not outstanding.

The construction of the Western (Chongqing) Science City urgently needs strong support at the national level to provide strong scientific and technological support for building a national "strategic backbone."

Three specific suggestions

To this end, the Chongqing delegation proposed three specific suggestions.

First, provide support to layout and construct strategic scientific and technological forces. It is recommended to layout major scientific and technological infrastructure, national innovation base, and other strategic forces in the Western (Chongqing) Science City. It is recommended to support the construction of national laboratories and bases in the Western (Chongqing) Science City and to strengthen the guidance of projects such as super transient experiment facility and China natural population biological resource bank.

Second, provide support to introduce high-level scientific research institutions. It is suggested to support universities to jointly hold research institutions with localities in Western (Chongqing) Science City, carry out cooperation between the industry, academia, and research centers, and drive universities' development. The Chongqing delegation suggested increasing the target graduate student enrollment to cultivate urgently-needed talents.

Third, provide support to the pilot program of the tax policies. High-tech enterprises within the Western (Chongqing) Science City are suggested to enjoy preferential tax policies for China's Western Development Program and high-tech enterprises.