Deputy of the NPC and Chongqing municipal Party secretary Bo Xilai revealed on the afternoon of March 6 that the State Council just approved the municipality to set up one bonded zone, covering an area of 10 square kilometers, to be Chinese mainland’s first bonded zone.

Bo claimed that the goal of the municipal development is to be Chinese mainland’s open highland. For the development degree, Chongqing located in the west has a weak foundation and much difficulty with growth, inferior to Beijing, Tianjin and Shanghai, but it has its own characteristic, that is, the merely municipality directly under the central government in the inland.

Bo said that Shanghai is the economic center in the downstream area of the Yangtze River, and currently, the central government actually puts forward a major concept that Chongqing shall be the economic hub in the upstream area of the Yangtze River. As we all know, the Yangtze River is the gold water channel of Chinese economy, how the municipality becomes the economic hub lies in the driving of opening up to the outside to a large extent, so the municipal Party committee and government are sparing no effort to create an open highland.