At a working meeting on 5 December, Chongqing municipal government approved a 12th five-year plan to develop the financial sector, according to Chongqing Commerce newspaper. The plan aims to expand the financial sector so that by 2015 it will account for 10 per cent of municipal GDP.

Mayor Huang Qifan said that efforts should be made to develop offshore financial settlement as a particular speciality.

Chongqing’s GDP in the first three quarters of 2011 totalled Rmb700.4bn, an increase of 16.5 per cent year-on-year.