Southwest China's Chengdu holds event to attract foreign investment

The three-day 2025 "Invest in Chengdu" Global Investment Promotion Conference opened in the regional hub in southwest China's Sichuan Province on Wednesday, aiming to present the city's strengths and potential to global investors.

Over recent years, Chengdu, the provincial capital city of Sichuan, has undergone rapid development. Today, Chengdu is putting its weight behind high-growth and high-tech industries to drive what is called the "new economy" and further promote the city's high-quality development.

Themed "Cooperation, Innovation, Future," the 2025 "Invest in Chengdu" Global Investment Promotion Conference drew nearly 400 guests, including representatives from Fortune Global 500 companies, multinational corporations, leading industry enterprises, financial institutions, as well as specialized and sophisticated enterprises that produce new and unique products.

In separate interviews with China Media Group (CMG), some attendees spoke highly of Chengdu's growth prospects.

"I think, in terms of Chengdu, one aspect that I've been quite impressed with since I've been here is also the technical skills of the work force, and of course the high value-added sort of products that are actually manufactured in Chengdu," said Shaun Brodie, head of Research Content of Cushman and Wakefield Greater China.

The municipal government of Chengdu has exerted great efforts to support foreign-funded enterprises operating in the city, actively attracting foreign investment and facilitating their business growth, according to local officials.

"We've kept improving services for foreign-funded enterprises, having established a full life-cycle service system for foreign-funded enterprises. We also regularly hold roundtable meetings with foreign-funded enterprises to hear their feedback on Chengdu's business environment and economic and social development," said Jiang Ge, deputy chief of the Chengdu Investment Promotion Bureau.

In addition to hosting the event, the municipal government of Chengdu has also launched a series of overseas investment promotion activities lately respectively in Germany, Sweden, the UK, France, Australia, and Austria, according to the Chengdu Investment Promotion Bureau.

Voting in Chile's presidential runoff election opened on Sunday, with leftist candidate Jeannette Jara facing Republican contender Jose Antonio Kast.

According to Chile's Electoral Service, voting began at 08:00 local time (1100 GMT) and will end at 18:00 (2100 GMT) the same day, with more than 15 million registered voters eligible to cast ballots.

In this round of voting, the candidate who receives the most votes will win the election. The president-elect will take office on March 11 next year.

No candidate received more than 50 percent of the vote in the first round on Nov. 16, meaning Jara and Kast, who won 26.85 percent and 23.92 percent, respectively, advanced to the runoff.

The two candidates have focused on improving social security, tackling illegal immigration and other issues in a bid to win over voters.