From November 7 to 8, the Provincial Conference on Opening up and Development was held in Chengdu. Wang Xiaohui, Secretary of the CPC Sichuan Provincial Committee and Chairman of the Standing Committee of Sichuan Provincial People's Congress, attended and addressed the conference. He emphasized the need to thoroughly implement General Secretary Xi Jinping's important expositions on opening up and the spirit of his important instructions on Sichuan's work, actively serve the country's overall strategy for opening up, promote the opening up and development of Sichuan across the board, accelerate the construction of a strategic highland for opening up to the west and a new base for participating in international competition, and leverage higher-standard opening up to write a new chapter of Sichuan in advancing Chinese modernization.

Shi Xiaolin, Deputy Secretary of the CPC Sichuan Provincial Committee and Governor of the People's Government of Sichuan Province, chaired the conference. Tian Xiangli, Chairperson of the CPPCC Sichuan Provincial Committee, and Yu Lijun, Deputy Secretary and Head of the Organization Department of the CPC Sichuan Provincial Committee, attended. Li Yongjie, Deputy China International Trade Representative at the Ministry of Commerce, attended the event and delivered an address.

In his speech, Wang Xiaohui stated that opening up is our fundamental national policy and the only way to achieve national prosperity and development. Since the 18th CPC National Congress, giving full consideration to both domestic and international imperatives, General Secretary Xi Jinping has taken a hands-on approach to shaping and advancing China's opening-up initiatives. He has creatively introduced a series of new thoughts, viewpoints and assessments, proposed the Belt and Road Initiative to the world, and emphasized that opening up is a defining feature of Chinese modernization, fully demonstrating the responsibility and commitment to promoting an open world economy and building a human community with a shared future. This provides scientific guidance for our opening-up efforts in the new era. General Secretary attaches great importance to Sichuan's opening-up efforts, providing personal guidance and meticulous direction. In particular, he has entrusted Sichuan with the mission of building a strategic highland for opening up to the west and a new base for participating in international competition, establishing Sichuan's new position and coordinating in the national opening-up landscape. We must earnestly assume the mission and tasks entrusted by the Party Central Committee and General Secretary, actively serve and integrate into the new development pattern, continuously enhance our hard power for participating in international competition, and strive to create a new situation where high-standard opening-up drives high-quality development.

Wang Xiaohui pointed out that Sichuan is located inland in our country, and opening up has always been the inevitable choice for Sichuan to expand its development space and enhance development quality. In recent years, we have diligently implemented the decisions and plans of the Party Central Committee, consistently prioritizing the expansion of high-standard opening-up as a major task for governing Sichuan and revitalizing the province. We have pushed for a significant increase in the scale of opening-up, a substantial enhancement of our opening-up capabilities, and a more refined opening-up structure, leading to new and remarkable accomplishments across all aspects of our work. It is evident that Sichuan's opening-up cause has gathered pace and is thriving. To propel Sichuan's opening up and development in the new era, we must capitalize on our strategic location for all-round opening up, policy benefits for establishing a strategic hinterland, our strength in a comprehensive and manageable industrial system, and our potential in a vast market scale, concentrate on the goal of creating "one highland and one base", adhere to the principle of "expanding westward, advancing southward, connecting eastward, and integrating northward", and move faster to establish an all-round, multi-tiered new opening-up pattern. "Expanding westward" refers to strengthening the transportation channels such as the China-Europe Railway Express and the Western International Aviation Hub, continuously advancing high-end cooperation with Europe, fostering robust economic and trade relations with Central Asia, West Asia, and Africa, and striving to create a significant pivot on the Belt and Road. "Advancing southward" means actively engaging in the South and Southeast Asian markets, deeply participating in the China-ASEAN cooperation framework and the construction of international economic corridors such as BCIM (Bangladesh-China-India-Myanmar), and consolidating and enhancing our existing opening-up achievements. "Connecting eastward" entails giving full play to our advantages as a national strategic hinterland, actively undertaking industrial transfers, aligning more closely with the advanced productive forces of coastal developed areas, such as the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area and the Yangtze River Delta, and vigorously expanding into East Asian, American, and Australian markets. "Integrating northward" means actively integrating into the national strategy of opening up to the north, playing an active role in the China-Russia and China-Mongolia bilateral cooperation frameworks, and creating new spaces for the development of an open economy.

Wang Xiaohui pointed out that we should vigorously develop a higher-level open economy. Efforts will be directed towards building a multi-dimensional and efficient grand opening channel. We will create comprehensive transportation hubs integrating air, rail, road, and water transport, as well as global logistics and information hubs, accelerate the construction of the "four-way and eight-corridor" comprehensive transportation corridor, work together with Chongqing to establish the Sichuan-Chongqing "Belt and Road" import and export commodity distribution center, and uphold high standards in constructing the Chengdu-Chongqing hub in the national computing power network and the national AI innovative development pilot zone. Creating high-energy level open platforms and carriers is essential. We will amplify the pioneering role of the pilot free trade zones, consolidate the advantages of processing trade and bonded logistics in integrated bonded areas, foster and enhance new business formats such as bonded R&D and maintenance, further improve the high-standard opening-up mechanisms for national and provincial development zones, and cultivate a batch of top-tier parks with international competitiveness. All-out efforts will be channeled towards boosting the quantity and quality of foreign trade. We will continuously expand the total volume of foreign trade, optimize and broaden the foreign trade layout, strengthen foreign trade entities, actively explore an integrated trade-industry development model, constantly cultivate new growth drivers for trade, and increase the market coverage of "Made in Sichuan" products. It is necessary to strengthen the two-way interaction of "bringing in" and "going global". We will innovate investment attraction strategies, vigorously promote investment through chains, parks, and capital, support capable enterprises in establishing a batch of production bases, sales networks, and storage facilities overseas, and create a globally oriented, open, and accessible international economic and trade network.

Wang Xiaohui pointed out the need to concentrate efforts on building a higher-level business environment. We will steadily expand institutional opening up, promote proactive alignment with high-standard international economic and trade rules, implement the policy of removing all restrictions on access for foreign investment in the manufacturing sector, and enhance institutional support for integrating into the positive interplay between domestic and international economic flows. We will continuously improve government services, further, carry out actions to enhance the business environment with controlling costs as the core, improve the "green channel" mechanism for major foreign investment projects, optimize cross-border tax and fee services, and create a first-class business environment nationwide that is market-oriented, law-based, and internationalized. We will deepen cultural and people-to-people exchanges and cooperation, fully tap into the resources of consulates and sister cities in Sichuan, continuously expand international cooperation in fields such as education and culture, host World Games 2025 Chengdu and other international events at a high level, accelerate the development of the world-class tourist destination and international consumption destination, more effectively tell Sichuan's stories with the opening up and cooperation efforts, and showcase the diverse aspects of Chinese modernization.

Wang Xiaohui pointed out that opening-up work involves many aspects and must be planned and promoted as a cohesive whole across the entire province. We must strengthen Party leadership and effectively bolster the overall planning, institutional improvement, guidance, supervision, and organizational support for opening up work by Party committees (Party leading groups) at all levels. The principal leaders must firmly grasp the opening-up work. It is essential to implement the responsibility system in a down-to-earth manner. The leading groups for opening up at all levels across the province must take a leading role in coordinating these efforts. All localities, departments, and units must work together to ensure the continuity, complementarity, and synergy of foreign policies, striving to form a cohesive effort in work. We must build a robust official team, continuously enhance the global vision, strategic insight, and opening-up competencies of leading officials, improve the full-chain cultivation mechanism for outstanding talents, and create an international and specialized opening-up task force.

Li Yongjie, in her address, represented the Ministry of Commerce in extending congratulations on the convening of the conference. She pointed out that as we embark on a new journey, we must thoroughly implement General Secretary Xi Jinping's important expositions on opening up, diligently implement the decisions and plans from the third plenary session of the CPC 20th Central Committee, unwaveringly expand high-standard opening up, and use high-level opening-up to promote in-depth reform and drive high-quality development. Sichuan, as a strategic hinterland in the national development landscape, has a solid foundation and favorable conditions for promoting high-standard opening up. We expect Sichuan to make greater contributions in stabilizing foreign trade and investment, generate more experiences in institutional opening up, and explore more paths for fostering the positive interplay between domestic and international economic flows. The Ministry of Commerce will, based on its functions and responsibilities, continue to support Sichuan's opening up and development as always, deepen and substantiate the ministry-province cooperation, and help Sichuan accelerate the construction of a strategic highland for opening up to the west and a new base for participating in international competition.

The conference was held in a hybrid form combining "on-site visit and teleconference", with each city (prefecture) establishing a sub-venue. On the afternoon of November 7, the attendees at the main venue visited and inspected some key projects and open platforms in two groups. On the morning of November 8, a teleconference was held, during which representatives from Chengdu Municipality, the Provincial Department of Commerce, the Provincial Bureau of Economic Cooperation, Chengdu Customs District, and American company Albemarle successively made exchange speeches.

Attendees at the main venue included provincial leaders, leading officials from various provincial departments (units), heads of some central units stationed in Sichuan, persons in charge from some provincial research institutes and state-owned enterprises supervised by Sichuan provincial SASAC, and representatives of Fortune Global 500 companies operating in Sichuan, well-known enterprises in their respective industries, and foreign trade and economic firms, among others.