成都大陆希望集团有限公司

Source: People's Daily, China Economic Weekly official website

By Shi Qingchuan | Chengdu, China

Chengdu is unusually bustling at night. Although large shopping malls are closed for business, street-side restaurants are still doing brisk business on Chengdu's Chunxi Road after 10pm. Even near midnight, queues are still the norm at food and beverage outlets.

Yao Zhaoke, the person in charge of Chengdu-based catering brand Kaojiang, happily told China Economic Weekly, ‘There were so many people that we had to take a number and queue up to eat by ourselves.’

A sense of ‘relaxation’ is engraved in the bones of the Chengdu people's culture, Chengdu people like to ‘ease’, and it is this ‘ease’ of life and grounded policies combined into Chengdu's unique business environment.

The atmosphere of living and working together allows more private capital to take root and create their own business culture.

In front of Cocoa Bean Animation, the first producer of Ne Zha 2.

Hope Slanvert Intelligent Manufacturing Factory

Knowledge of life is the only way to create ‘Nezha’.

The success of Ne Zha 2 has not only brought Chengdu Cocoa Bean out of the loop, but also brought Chengdu's industrial layout in the field of culture and creativity into the public eye.

Recently, a reporter came to Chengdu and found that Thousand Birds Culture, Cocoa Bean, MOREVFX, and Force Animation, all of which were jointly involved in the production of Nezha 2, were located in the same cultural and creative park, and were no more than a five-minute walk from each other. ‘There are times you just from upstairs and we can hear it .’" Said Sun Lu, CEO of Thousand Birds Culture.

This kind of communication also provides unparalleled convenience for film and television production projects. In the opinion of Xing Mingli, CG director of MOREVFX, face-to-face communication is the most efficient. Because there are some confidential data in film and TV production projects, it is sometimes inconvenient to transfer data online when the partner needs to do so. When the offices are closer, it is convenient and fast to find someone to send it directly.

MOREVFX's Chengdu branch is located just a few hundred metres from Cocoa Bean, and their company was also involved in the production of Ne Zha 1 and Ne Zha 2. Its Chengdu CEO, Liu Ying, and CG director, Xing Mingli, are both former northern expatriates who discovered Chengdu after living and working in Beijing for more than a decade.

When it comes to why she is optimistic about Chengdu, Liu Ying said that the consumer group in Chengdu is very receptive to innovation. Sun Lu also believes that Chengdu has a deep cultural heritage and innovative genes. At the same time, compared with Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen, Chengdu's living and office costs are lower, with the dual qualities of ‘slow life’ and ‘fast development’.

In his opinion, livability and leisure culture help to enhance talent stability, and such an atmosphere is suitable for cultural and creative projects that require long-term incubation as well as maintaining talent stability. In addition, the Chengdu Municipal Government has supported a large number of game and animation industries through a series of policy measures, such as tax incentives, making the development of animation and creative industries in Chengdu have a unique soil and industrial chain cluster effect.

‘I think Chengdu is naturally suitable for cultural and creative industries.’ Wang Lei, chairman of Xingyue Chenshi, told reporter. Art creation comes from life, and only with a comfortable life can we have the energy to write poems. Chengdu is a city with life for Wang Lei.

He said, ‘I've been living in Beijing for more than ten years, and only when I came to Chengdu did I realise that life can be so pleasant. Go to the concerts you should hear, go to the bars you should go to, and live a nourishing life. I think this is the biggest advantage of Chengdu in attracting creative talents.’

A cursory look at Chengdu Hi-Tech Zone's ‘26 Articles on Digital Economy’ (‘Several Policies for Accelerating the High-Quality Development of the Digital Economy Industry in Chengdu Hi-Tech Zone’) reveals that it has provided policy support for the development and launching of gaming products, conversion of tournaments, overseas distribution, holding of e-competitions, operation of venues, and the creation, post-production of film, television, animation and cartoon works. ‘We have been planning systematically. I think that's why many companies are now willing to come to Chengdu and to the high-tech zone.’ The relevant person in charge of Chengdu's high-tech zone said.

PharmaTech showroom screen

Hope Slanvert Intelligent Storage

Supportive policies win the hearts of enterprises

A comfortable living environment attracts a lot of talent. And the amount of talent is an indication of a region's business vitality.

Chengdu International Railway Port is busy after the beginning of spring. Lorries from all over the country are coming in and out of the Intelligent Gate, and the containers in the cargo yard of the Customs Supervision Area are stacked high like a mountain. Not far from the cargo inspection area, a number of customs officers are carrying out inspection of goods. After inspection, they will take the China-European liner ‘out to sea’.

As an inland city in the west, Chengdu has an inherent disadvantage in the import and export. But with the promotion of the ‘Belt and Road’, this inland city is becoming a new ‘sea’.

Located in Chengdu Hi-Tech Zone, Sigma Precision Components Co., Ltd. is a British-funded company whose main business is the production and manufacture of spare parts in the field of aero-engines.

The reason for setting up in Chengdu, Sigma general manager He Wei told this reporter, one word, talent.

In He Wei's view, the advantage of being able to attract the favour of foreign investment lies in the industrial base, while the base to ensure a strong industrial base is in the industrial talent. ‘Chengdu's institutions are very advantageous.’ And Chengdu, which has its own aerospace industry, also has a foundation in training the corresponding talents.

In recent years, thanks to the policies of opening up to the outside world, Chengdu's attractiveness to foreign companies has increased once again. ‘Manufacturing companies like us, which have a high level of technology, have equally high requirements for logistics and transport to ensure efficiency. The increase in Chengdu's international air routes will also make it a bit more convenient for us.’ He Wei said.

Now part of the domestic foreign-funded enterprises began to shift to India and Southeast Asia. In this regard, He Wei said: ‘ The threshold we need is too high. India and Southeast Asia can only do some OEM with less technical attributes. They may not be able to support the aero-engine."

Coupled with the fact that global demand for aero-engines remains strong, He Wei feels that if the aviation manufacturing industry needs to increase capacity and make new investments, it will have to do so in China, or most likely in Chengdu.

He Jianbo, general manager of Continental Hope Group's Electromechanical Intelligence Division, was similarly attracted by Chengdu's vigour. He told this reporter that the reason for settling down in Chengdu is simply because of the city's vigour and attractiveness. Especially as a Sichuanese, he understands Chengdu's rich heritage very well.

He particularly mentioned that Chengdu is especially well received by companies in terms of supporting R&D innovation and factory digitisation.

Regarding the needs of enterprises for new investment and opening up new markets, He Jianbo believes that to make new investments, enterprises should firstly focus on the match with major local industries. Secondly, there are hardware facilities, such as transport accessibility and industrial resources. These are all areas where Chengdu has an advantage.

Shen Jinyang, Secretary of the Board of Directors of Hezongyy, said in an interview with our reporter that Chengdu's inclusiveness, innovativeness and openness are necessities for the development of the company. At the same time, Chengdu's living atmosphere and urban glamour provide unique advantages for enterprises to attract and retain talents, and these factors together constitute the attractiveness of Chengdu's business environment.

‘Comfort’ to retain talent, policy to grasp the industry

If the comfortable living environment retains talent, then the pull of the policy is to capture the industrial investment in Chengdu ‘adhesive’.

When it comes to boosting private investment, He Jianbo believes that private investment driven by government investment not only promotes economic growth, but also optimises resource allocation and stimulates market vitality, so the mechanism is important. ‘For example, the construction of high-speed railway drives the steel, building materials, machinery manufacturing and other industries, and stimulates commercial development along the route. The government can create market demand for private investment through ‘direct investment + government guidance + institutional reform’.

Hope Slanvert, a subsidiary of the Continental Hope Group, has received partial support for the transformation of its intelligent manufacturing factories. He Jianbo said that last year they carried out technological transformation of two intelligent factories, the enterprise invested a lot of money and resources, the government in the process through the ‘special subsidies for technological transformation’ and other means to encourage the confidence of private investment.

The relevant person in charge of the Chengdu Municipal Finance Bureau showed our reporter that Chengdu has made practical measures in the field of re-guarantee.

Speaking of experience, the said person in charge disclosed that, in order to optimise the financing environment, Chengdu's financial guarantee system has introduced a model -- under the premise of risk-sharing support provided by Chengdu Re-guarantee Company and locking in the overall repayment limit beforehand, for the same borrower, the guarantee agency does not repeat the examination of the customers recommended by the bank, and does not start from the point of view of preventing malicious intent, which greatly improves the financing efficiency.

In addition to subsidies, Chengdu's services to enterprises are also reflected in the matching of resources.

Chengdu Municipal Development and Reform Commission relevant person in charge revealed that Chengdu is now running ‘meeting online at any time, regularly meeting offline’ communication and exchange mechanism between government and enterprises, so far, has visited 80,700 enterprises, and collected 26,100 problems and demands and suggestions from online and offline.

Private enterprises that have solved their pressing problems in this way are found in almost every industry in Chengdu.

On 14 November 2024, at the Chengdu Private Economy High-Quality Development Symposium, Kelen Pharmaceuticals, as a participating enterprise, reflected the problem of blockage in the transformation of scientific and technological achievements of innovative drugs. Chengdu ‘into the solution to promote’ general task force after research found that such a blockage is not an isolated case, innovative drug research and development enterprises generally have drugs ‘difficult to enter the hospital’ problem.

In that month, Chengdu Municipal Bureau of Economics and Information Technology, Health Commission, Market Supervision Bureau, Medical Insurance Bureau and other relevant authorities jointly issued various measures and guidelines after the study, and ultimately succeeded in helping innovative drug production and R & D enterprises to shorten the cycle of innovative drugs into the hospital, and opened up the ‘last kilometre’ of the transformation of scientific and technological achievements of innovative drugs.

Also solving problems as a result are electronic information companies such as HHCD, BOE, and Texas Instruments.

The difficulty they encountered was the import access problem of photoresist. Previously, photoresist can only be imported from Shanghai, and then transferred to Chengdu by land, which is a long logistics time. Understanding this situation, the relevant authorities in Chengdu City to promote joint efforts to shorten the logistics time.

Through the opening of Shuangliu Airport Special Commodity Warehouse (Dangerous Goods Warehouse) and the establishment of a co-operation and sharing mechanism for the Special Commodity Warehouse (Dangerous Goods Warehouse), photoresist and other cold and dangerous goods can be imported directly by air from Chengdu air port. The logistics time is shortened by 2~3 days, and 4 enterprises, namely HHCD, BOE, Texas Instruments, and Yuxin, can save 20~30 million RMB in logistics cost a year.