The city’s executive vice mayor Huang Qifang has predicted that the city’s industrial output this year would exceed Rmb800bn, up 23 per cent from that of last year. The municipal government plans to invest Rmb900bn in nine new industrial sectors to create 300,000 jobs. It is promising a subsidy the equivalent of 30 per cent of the local wages to those companies that are in financial difficulty but are not cutting jobs. The government is also setting aside Rmb100m to help university graduates to start up businesses.
Utilised foreign direct investment in Chongqing stood at US$2.74bn in 2008, an increase of 151 per cent on the previous year. Pledged FDI totalled US$3.3bn. At the end of last year, there were 4,928 foreign enterprises registered in the municipality, an increase of 11 per cent year-on-year, said Chongqing Administration of Industry and Commerce. Chongqing’s utilised FDI reached US$2.7bn last year, up 170 per cent year-on-year, and there were nine new Fortune 500 companies, including HP.