People experience automobile seats that can be electrically rotated and repositioned at the Smart China Expo 2023 in Chongqing on Monday. CUI LI/FOR CHINA DAILY

Chongqing, a traditional industrial powerhouse, has been leading western China in intelligent connected new energy vehicle development in recent years, and the ongoing Smart China Expo is expected to bring more technology and investment to the city.

At the expo, Chongqing enterprises signed 84 major projects with a contract value of 213 billion yuan ($29.4 billion). About one-third of the agreements involved intelligent connected NEVs.

Among those projects, Chongqing Yulong Asset Management will partner with Chinese technology giant Huawei to build a super-fast charging industrial ecological network. Banma Network Technology, an offshoot of Alibaba Group, and automaker SAIC, will establish an intelligent vehicle operating system innovation industrial park in Chongqing. China National Petroleum Corporation will set up battery swapping stations with Aulton, China's largest battery swapping company.

The Smart China Expo 2023 kicked off in Chongqing on Monday, highlighting intelligent connected NEVs and "digital China".

The three-day event has attracted more than 500 enterprises, more than 200 of which have exhibition space.

The annual expo, begun in 2018, aims to showcase new products, technologies, business formats and modes of smart technology through conferences, exhibitions, summits and competitions.

This year's expo highlights intelligent manufacturing and equipment, new-generation information technologies and smart transportation, the organizing committee said.

Cutting-edge innovative products, technological systems and the latest solutions in 27 subsectors such as batteries, key basic components and artificial intelligence are being showcased.

As the gateway to Southwest China and a major industrial base, Chongqing, on the upper reaches of the Yangtze River, has established one of the world's largest IT industrial clusters and one of China's biggest auto manufacturing bases.

It aims to build itself into a renowned smart city and a smart manufacturing powerhouse with over 5,000 high-tech companies that contribute 19 percent of the dynamic city's industrial output, local authorities said.

Last year, Chongqing produced some 2 million vehicles, including 365,000 NEVs, up 140 percent year-on-year.

This year, NEVs in Chongqing have contributed to 85 percent of the growth of the city's automobile industry.

From January to July, Chongqing's automobile manufacturing sector completed projects involving the investment of 11 billion yuan, among which new energy automobile industry projects accounted for 8.54 billion yuan, according to Chongqing Development and Reform Commission.

On the sideline of the expo on Monday, Chongqing hosted an event on technology cooperation with the Community of Latin American and the Caribbean States.

China and Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Mexico, Nicaragua, Peru, El Salvador, Uruguay, the Bahamas, Barbados, Dominica, Guyana, Trinidad and Tobago jointly announced the Chongqing Initiative of China-CELAC Digital Technology Cooperation Forum.

The initiative reiterates the importance of connectivity and calls for all the participating member countries to jointly promote the construction of new infrastructure represented by 5G and data centers, to promote the deep integration and innovative development of digital technologies with the real economy, and make new and greater contributions to the building of a community of shared future between China and CELAC countries.