Lei Hengshun, a professor at the Sustainable Development Research Office of Chongqing University, pointed out that Chengdu, Deyang, Mianyang and other cities are centered on Chongqing, and "Chengde Mian" is a key industrial economic highland in Sichuan Province. Chengdu and Chongqing are more than 300 kilometers apart, with convenient transportation, and there are seven medium-sized cities with a certain scale between them, showing a complementary linkage trend in regional economic strategy matching.
In February, 2004, a high-standard delegation of nearly 100 people, led by the main leaders of Chongqing Party and Government, went to Chengdu for talks with the delegation of Sichuan Party and Government, and signed the Framework Agreement on Strengthening Cooperation between Sichuan and Chongqing in Economic and Social Fields to Promote the Development of the Economic Zone in the Upper Yangtze River and six specific agreements (collectively referred to as "1+6" Sichuan).
In this way, the development planning of Chengdu-Chongqing Economic Zone has gone deep into the actual actions of the party committees and governments of the two provinces and cities from academic research to the advocacy of the National Development and Reform Commission. Tian Daigui, an expert from Chongqing Academy of Social Sciences, said: "The radiation and influence of Chongqing and Chengdu cannot be ignored. Chongqing can focus on the position and role of manufacturing center and logistics center in the western region, and Chengdu should focus on the role of financial center and scientific and technological innovation base. "
Between Chengdu and Chongqing, Ziyang and Neijiang are geographically separated. "If Sichuan Province does not actively coordinate the work in these areas, the so-called Chengdu-Chongqing cooperation will only stay in meetings and documents in the end." Some local officials expressed concern about this.
Yao Chen, a researcher at the Institute of Industrial Economics of China Academy of Social Sciences, summed up the similar situation as a "double leading city". These "two-headed dragon" cities belong to municipalities directly under the central government, provincial capitals or sub-provincial cities respectively, and their development projects and investments are listed separately in the national plan, and there is no subordinate relationship between them. Due to the limitation of the system, the provincial government can't exert influence on the sub-provincial cities through investment, so it can't coordinate even within a province; Although the two cities are geographically close, their development is fragmented, the flow of factors is limited, and even barriers are set up between them, resulting in repeated construction of infrastructure and industrial projects and serious idle waste. The research report "Research on Coordinating the Spatial Development Order and Adjusting the Spatial Structure" of the Macro Research Institute of the National Development and Reform Commission suggests: "Accelerate the integration of Chengdu and Chongqing, and make the two growth poles of Chengdu and Chongqing transform and merge into a huge growth axis, which has functions that two single growth poles do not have. Accelerate the intensity of reform and opening up, and make Chengdu and Chongqing quickly become a high-speed urbanization area, an economically active area and a region that drives the healthy development of the surrounding economy in western China. "
A western observer who works for the British BBC in Chongqing believes that the special geographical environment of Chengdu, Chongqing and Chongqing determines that their cities are highly interdependent. It is not necessarily a good thing for one party to overwhelm the other, but it is a win-win outcome to work together to achieve prosperity. Not long ago, a fact confirmed this view: The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Limited announced on June 26, 2005 that with the approval of the China Banking Regulatory Commission, the representative offices in Chongqing and Chengdu were upgraded to branches at the same time.