陈伟：“亚投行”将帮助重庆保持外向型经济竞争优势

□ 文/本刊记者 曾睿

陈伟：“亚投行”将帮助重庆保持外向型经济竞争优势

□ 文/本刊记者 曾睿

管理学博士、四川外国语大学国际商学院陈伟副教授在接受记者采访时表示：“亚投行”设立之后，在对外口岸硬件建设、外向型产业均衡发展、社会舆论环境等多个方面都将会帮助重庆保持竞争优势，增强重庆的开放与外向型经济的活力。

成为重庆对外口岸建设可靠的资金渠道

毫无疑问，“亚投行”对未来重庆的开放与外向型经济的影响将全面而深远，但“将作为重庆口岸建设可靠的资金渠道”则是陈伟认为最为重要的一个方面。在他看来，通过连续多年大量的资金投入和政策支持，重庆目前已初步形成三大交通枢纽、三个一类开放口岸、三大保税监管区“三个三合一”的内陆开放平台，航空、铁路、水运三方面国家一类口岸均齐备，“渝新欧”也成为了中欧铁路大通道中的“知名品牌”。但是，要保证重庆外向型经济和口岸经济的活力与竞争力，已经建成的口岸基础设施就必须不断升级、提升，在各个口岸的附近还要兴建一大批投资巨大的配套项目，动辄就是百亿工程，如：今年1月重庆西部现代物流园当月开工和签约的9个子项目总投资达人民币500亿元；重庆目前正在积极争取的，用于“渝新欧”建设升级的资金更是高达400亿美元。“亚投行”正式运行后，必然将为重庆的对外口岸建设提供一条可靠的资金渠道，对于保证重庆各个口岸的建设进度和维持竞争优势都具有极大的现实意义。

促进重庆外向型经济的均衡发展

陈伟还认为，目前重庆的外向型经济虽然已经取得了巨大的发展，但是同时也应该看到

存在产业发展不够均衡等结构性问题。比如，重庆笔记本电脑的生产已经占到全球生产总量的三分之一左右，以笔记本为核心的IT制造业在工业产值中外向度的比重已经达到了80%以上，但是，同时跨境电子商务等典型外向型行业的发展应该说还处于起步阶段，云计算、大数据、离岸金融等领域的发展也还相对比较缓慢。对于这一现状，陈伟认为主要的瓶颈问题还是资金，尤其是建设多个大型数据处理中心等基础设施的建设资金。由于这些投入具有基础设施性质，也大多需要数十亿上百亿的投资，投入巨大回收缓慢，所以让多数企业望而止步，需要像“亚投行”这样的金融机构积极介入。而一旦突破了资金制约，在重庆已有的完备开放口岸和现代物流的支撑下，重庆的跨境电子商务、云计算、大数据、离岸金融等行业将快速发展，重庆的外向型经济结构将趋于均衡。

掀起关注重庆对外开放的热潮

作为一直致力于重庆外向型经济研究的学者，陈伟副教授一直呼吁重庆应该在公众范围加强对重庆对外开放和发展外向型经济的宣传普及工作，吸引更多的公众和企业参与重庆建设西部内陆开放高地。他建议：重庆应该把握住目前“亚投行”话题在公众中积聚的极高关注度，结合重庆近几年来在对外开放中取得的巨大成绩，系统性地对市民开展重庆对外开放的宣传普及活动，既全面体现已经取得的巨大成就，唤起重庆人的自豪感，又充分介绍未来重庆在外向型经济方面所蕴涵的巨大机遇与国家赋予重庆的在外向型经济发展上的资源优势，激发重庆本土公众和企业对外向型经济的参与热情，掀起关注重庆对外开放的热潮。

Chen Wei, PhD in management and associate professor with the School of International Business, Sichuan International Studies University, says in this interview that the AIIB’s establishment will help Chongqing to maintain its competitiveness in various areas, such as the hardware construction of foreign trading ports, balanced development of export industries, and public opinions, so as to boost Chongqing’s opening-up and export economy.

AIIB to become a ReIiabIe Financing ChanneI for the Construction of Foreign Trading Ports in Chongqing

It is beyond question that in the future AIIB will exert an overall and profound influence on Chongqing’s opening-up and export-oriented economy. According to Prof. Chen, the overriding aspect is to understand that AIIB will become a reliable financing channel for the construction of foreign trading ports in Chongqing. In his opinion, thanks to the consecutive years of tremendous capital injection and policy support, the city has by far formed a comprehensive platform for inland opening-up with three transportation hubs, three Class-A ports and three bonded zones under supervision, which include national Class-A ports for air, railway and water transportation as well as the Chongqing-Xinjiang-Europe Railway which has become a well-known brand among all railways from China to Europe. On the other hand, in order to maintain the vitality and competitiveness of Chongqing’s export and port economy, it needs to constantly update the existing infrastructure of ports. Meanwhile, numerous supporting projects around ports are also necessary, and any of those projects will need no less than tens of billions yuan. For example, in this January, Chongqing Logistic City signed and started nine sub-projects worth a total investment of 50 billion yuan; and this city is now actively seeking for $40 billion to update its Chongqing-Xinjiang-Europe Railway. When the AIIB is put into operation, it will with no doubt become a reliable financing channel for the construction of foreign trading ports in Chongqing, which has an immediate significance on ensuring the construction schedule of each port and maintaining its competitiveness.

The AIIB to Promote the BaIanced DeveIopment of Chongqing’s Export Economy

Despite Chongqing’s tremendous achievements in its export economy, Chen added, it should address the imbalance in its industrial development. For instance, Chongqing’s laptop output has accounted for some onethird of the global production, and the export volume of its IT manufacturing industry driven by laptops takes a share of more than 80% in this industry’s total volume; on the other hand, the typical export industry, say, crossborder e-commerce, still stays at a very early stage, and the development levels of cloud computing, big data and offshore finance are comparatively slow. Considering the status quo, Chen pinpointed capital as the bottleneck, especially capital for building several large centers for data processing. He said, the infrastructural nature of such projects usually requires billions of investment which daunts many companies, financial institutions like AIIB are expected to play a role. Once capital is no longer a problem, various industries including cross-border e-commerce, cloud computing and offshore finance will grow rapidly with the support of the existing ports and modern logistics, which will gradually balance Chongqing’s export economic structure.

AIIB to Draw Attention to Chongqing’s Opening up

As a scholar who eyes on the export economy of Chongqing, Professor Chen has long been calling on the municipal government to beef up its publicity work to raise the awareness of the city’s opening-up and development in its export economy, so as to attract more individuals and companies to participate in building Chongqing as a Western inland highland of opening-up. Chen suggested, with the AIIB’s immense popularity and Chongqing’s tremendous achievements in opening-up, the government should seize the propitious time to carry out systematic publicity for raising public awareness on these topics. This is supposed to boost our citizens’ pride for their hometown, as well as to fully introduce them the great opportunities that come with the development of the export economy and the resource advantage given by the Central Government. With the AIIB’s massive exposure, the government should spark local citizens and companies to participate in promoting Chongqing’s export economy, so as to draw the public attention to the opening-up of this municipality.

Chen Wei: AIIB will Assist Chongqing to Maintain its Competitiveness as an Export-oriented Economy

□ Written by Zeng Rui