成都大陆希望集团有限公司

Source: Kandu Politics

This is not just a simple gathering, but a profound engagement with "city partners" from home and abroad. On October 30, the 2025 "Chengdu Partners" Annual Cooperation & Sharing Conference, themed "Joining the Harvest Appointment · Co-Creating an Open Future", was held. The conference was hosted by the Chengdu Foreign Opening-up & Cooperation Promotion Center, Chengdu Council for the Promotion of International Trade (CCPIT Chengdu) (Chengdu Expo Bureau), and ICBC Chengdu Branch, with support from the Chengdu Municipal Bureau of Commerce.

From Continental Hope Group, AEROFUGIA, XGIMI Technology to the European Union Chamber of Commerce in China (EUCCC) and Finland's Aalto Innovation Association... Domestic and international enterprises and institutions here share a common identity – "Chengdu Partners". With an open mindset of "forging partnerships and pursuing mutual growth", they are jointly telling a Chengdu story about opportunities, cooperation and the future.

"Making the Once-Unfamiliar Chinese Market Feel Familiar"

Over 360 domestic and foreign enterprises and institutions have joined "Chengdu Partners"

In the Chunxi Road business district, the "dopamine-colored" Wiggle Wiggle Chengdu store, adorned with hanging bear decorations and flower-shaped spaceship ornaments, and filled with stylish merchandise, is always crowded with domestic and foreign tourists taking photos and shopping. This well-known South Korean lifestyle IP brand store opened its first store in central and western China here in September last year. More importantly, it took less than five months for this flagship store to go from site inspection and initial contact to renovation and opening in Chengdu.

The "Open Chengdu" Partner Program is an innovative initiative by Chengdu to accelerate industrial development by leveraging both domestic and international markets and resources. As Kim Nam-gyu, General Manager of Investment and Operations at South Korea's E-Land Group – who facilitated the Wiggle Wiggle Chengdu store project and is also a "Chengdu Partner" – put it, "You have made the once-unfamiliar Chinese market feel familiar."

In internet slang, "Chengdu Partners" simply means "pairing up (forming CPs) with everyone for mutual growth".

Currently, Chengdu is accelerating its integration into the global industrial and innovation chains. The "Open Chengdu" Partner Program, launched by the Chengdu Foreign Opening-up & Cooperation Promotion Center and CCPIT Chengdu, serves as an international cooperation platform for the coordinated development of multiple entities, including "government, industries, and enterprises". It attracts high-quality domestic and foreign enterprises, professional institutions, chambers of commerce, associations and think tank experts to act as "city development partners", enabling them to connect with one another, share resources and unlock new opportunities for open cooperation.

At the 2025 "Chengdu Partners" Annual Cooperation & Sharing Conference, a series of cases demonstrated the outcomes of the partners' efforts in "joint creation, co-construction and sharing".

Examples include obtaining information about Australian company INJOI's plan to develop panda-themed dolls and facilitating cooperation between Sichuan Panda World Cultural Communication Co., Ltd. and INJOI; linking Chengdu CRRC Changke Rail Vehicle Co., Ltd. with German enterprise FUTUTRAIL for friendly cooperation; promoting the signing of a strategic cooperation agreement between AOSSCI Technology and a Pakistani enterprise; and helping Borns Medical Robotics ink a contract with a Belgian robotics training center. Through the six major initiatives under "Let’s Go Chengdu", the "Open Chengdu" Partner Program has brought together over 360 "Chengdu Partners" and facilitated the implementation of a number of high-quality projects.

Furthermore, CCPIT Chengdu has joined hands with the Chengdu Foreign Opening-up & Cooperation Promotion Center to launch the "Chengdu Enterprises: Global Exhibitions & Global Recruitment" initiative. It has organized more than 140 partner entities in 15 batches to expand into overseas markets, driving a steady increase in export orders for "Chengdu-made Products". Additionally, it has obtained over 100 project leads through foreign-related services and supported the implementation of more than 20 projects, including the Russian Food and Culture Festival.

Over the past two years, Chengdu has vigorously implemented the "Park Establishment & Full Operation" initiative and further advanced the "Problem-Solving & Service Enhancement" work. It has optimized the business environment for enterprise development, accelerated the global expansion of Chengdu-based enterprises and products, and boosted the vitality of the open economy. Therefore, this Cooperation & Sharing Conference not only aims to convey the spiritual core of co-construction and shared benefits, as well as the city’s inherent trait of openness and inclusiveness, through partners’ sharing of cooperation achievements and heartwarming stories, but also intends to further gather industrial resources, supporting projects and talent elements for the city’s development.

In particular, during the conference, a special "Partner Achievement Market" was set up on-site to showcase cutting-edge technological products in an immersive way. Additionally, in the cultural and creative (CC) and intangible cultural heritage (ICH) workshops, domestic and foreign enterprise guests were invited to taste Chengdu’s signature cuisine and experience ICH craftsmanship.

"What enterprises care about most is undoubtedly opportunities," said Pu Wen, General Manager of Panda World Cultural Communication Co., Ltd. She added that joining "Chengdu Partners" is precisely to expand the market and spread panda culture to a wider audience by connecting with others and sharing resources. "In the future, we hope to gain more opportunities to cooperate with domestic and foreign enterprises through collaboration among ‘Chengdu Partners’ and grow together with everyone."

George C. Summerfield, Partner at K&L GATES, spoke candidly about his strong impression of the Partner Program: "By integrating into this program, I look forward to finding cooperation projects with other partners, discovering more opportunities and achieving better development."

New Members Join 2025 "Chengdu Partners"

Joining Hands with Chengdu to Engage Globally and Share Opportunities

In the face of unprecedented changes in a century, it is crucial to seek opportunities by recognizing, adapting to and capitalizing on changes. Aligning with Chengdu’s functional positioning as the "Western Center for International Exchanges", the city is pursuing development in the open economic system, starting from "Rong" (the Chinese abbreviation for Chengdu).

At the Cooperation & Sharing Conference held that day, new members of the 2025 "Chengdu Partners" included the Microwave and Photonic Integration Frontier Research Center of Tianfu Jiangxi Laboratory, Yili Industrial Group, Chengdu Happy Sports Group, XGIMI Technology, K&L GATES, Feishu, Naoquankang (Chengdu) Company, the Commercial Association Chengdu, and Finland's Aalto Innovation Association, among others.

"We chose to join ‘Chengdu Partners’ because Chengdu, as a sci-tech innovation center in western China, boasts abundant market resources and great development potential," said Liu Jiayi, China Regional Partner of Finland’s Aalto Innovation Association. She added that in the future, the association expects to promote in-depth cooperation between China and Finland in fields such as robotics and artificial intelligence through the Partner Program. Liu Jiayi mentioned that a group of Chengdu enterprises visited Finland at the end of September to hold in-depth discussions on establishing relevant institutions in Chengdu. "In October, we unveiled the InnoHub (Chengdu) Innovation Base and the Chengdu Representative Office of Aalto Innovation Association, and we look forward to further advancing the innovation cooperation between the two places to a new stage."

With countless paths leading to the world, why start from Chengdu?

In the view of Mengzhi Ran, Vice President of the European Union Chamber of Commerce in China (EUCCC) and Chair of its Southwest Chapter, Chengdu's positioning has quietly elevated: "Chengdu is no longer merely a gateway to western China, it is becoming an innovation hub with national and even global influence."

Gao Zhikai, Deputy Director of the Center for China and Globalization (CCG), analyzed the roles of cities and opportunities for enterprises in the context of global opening-up from an international perspective. By placing Chengdu's development in the tide of global development, he proposed new paths for international cooperation. Zuo Xiaolei, Chief Economist of China Galaxy Securities, deeply echoed Chengdu's capability in high-level opening-up and described the city’s inherent openness and potential using the traditional Chinese concept of "timing, geographical advantage and human harmony".

"Owing to the protection of the Dujiangyan Irrigation System, Chengdu has enjoyed favorable weather for thousands of years – that's 'timing'; in the current stage of modern economic development, Chengdu, as a core city in the Chengdu-Chongqing Twin-City Economic Circle and a key node of the New International Land-Sea Trade Corridor in the West, holds a unique and important position in serving the new-era western development drive—that's 'geographical advantage'; Chengdu people love their hometown and cherish it deeply no matter where they travel in the world—that's 'human harmony'," said Zuo Xiaolei.

As a frontier for the new round of opening-up, Chengdu achieved a regional GDP of 1822.69 billion yuan in the first nine months of this year, a year-on-year increase of 5.8%. Its import and export volume of goods reached 646.18 billion yuan, up 6% year-on-year, hitting a record high for the same period in history. These figures reflect a trend: more and more enterprises are venturing into the international market, undergoing a transformation from "exporting goods" to "exporting industries and services," and further to "exporting capital, brands, and culture."

Dialogue has never been one-way. While a growing number of Sichuan-based and Chengdu-based enterprises are accelerating their pace to expand into overseas markets, more and more foreign-funded enterprises are also targeting opportunities for mutual development. Data shows that in the first four months of this year alone, Chengdu attracted $656 million in foreign direct investment (FDI), ranking first among cities in central and western China. Its FDI scale accounts for 73% of the province’s total, with a double-digit growth rate for four consecutive months.

Open cooperation is the key for enterprises to quickly integrate into the global market, seize the opportunities of the times and share development outcomes, said a relevant person in charge of the Chengdu Foreign Opening-up & Cooperation Promotion Center. To better support enterprises in their "going global" and "bringing in" efforts, the center will focus more on three areas: first, building a partner ecosystem to continuously gather growth momentum for the city’s participation in international cooperation; second, creating platform scenarios to accelerate the construction of the Chengdu Enterprise Global Expansion Comprehensive Service Center; third, improving service quality to build a multi-dimensional and multi-level service system oriented to partners’ needs, and shaping a service brand that lives up to the commitment of "our services follow wherever enterprises develop".