Chongqing Unveils Blueprint for Scenario Construction, Aiming to Become "City of Vibrant Scenario Innovation"by 2028

On May 13, the Action Plan of Chongqing Municipality for Accelerating Scenario Cultivation and Opening-up to Promote Large-scale Application of New Scenarios (hereinafter referred to as the "Action Plan") was publicly issued.

The Action Plan systematically lays out key scenarios across 21 fields in five major areas and specifies eight key tasks and measures. It proposes to create 20 comprehensive major scenarios with distinctive Chongqing characteristics each year, organize over 200 scenario supply-demand matchmaking events, and open up more than 2,000 effective scenario opportunities. By 2028, Chongqing aims to basically establish a "City of Vibrant Scenario Innovation" characterized by "openness and inclusiveness, vibrant energy, distinct features, and enhanced governance effectiveness."

Feng Yong, Director of the Information Institute of the Chongqing Institute of Green and Intelligent Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, commented that the issuance of this Action Plan marked Chongqing officially sounding the charge for systematically advancing scenario cultivation, presenting a "blueprint" for scenario construction, and pressing the "fast-forward button" for scenario innovation.

Chongqing Steers New Quality Productive Forces with Scenario Innovation

Scenarios serve as a vital bridge that connects technology and industry, and links R&D with the market.

In November 2025, the General Office of the State Council issued the Implementation Plan for Accelerating Scenario Cultivation and Opening-up to Promote Large-scale Application of New Scenarios, marking the elevation of scenario innovation to a national strategic policy instrument.

The Action Plan represents the precise implementation of the national strategy in Chongqing, where the city is accelerating its efforts to carve out a distinctive path for scenario innovation.

Why Does Chongqing Attach Such Great Importance to the Shaping of "Scenarios"?

"The profound significance underpinning Chongqing's accelerated planning of scenario cultivation and application is to steer new quality productive forces through scenario innovation," said Feng Yong.

First, scenario innovation acts as a "testing ground" for commercializing new technologies. Different from the previous diachronic innovation model of "R&D first, commercialization later," scenario innovation is a synchronic innovation model where technology R&D and commercial translation occur simultaneously. At present, as Chongqing promotes the deep integration of scientific and technological innovation with industrial innovation, it needs to establish a series of science and technology experimental proving grounds and scenario verification sites to attract nationwide technological achievements for commercialization and implementation in the city.

Second, scenario innovation is an "accelerator" for seizing new arenas. The development of new arenas for future industries follows the core path of "technological breakthroughs - scenario verification - industrial application - system upgrading." Application scenarios accelerate the validation of business models for new technologies and products, rapidly driving fission and giving rise to new models and new forms of business. To pioneer new arenas in emerging and future industries, Chongqing urgently needs to establish a mechanism of "frontier technology R&D - application scenario testing - large-scale mass production," leveraging the large-scale application of new scenarios to drive explosive growth in new arenas.

Meanwhile, scenario innovation is an "amplifier" for attracting investment from society. By planning major scenario projects, it creates investment targets and opportunities that are open to private capital, fully unleashing the "multiplier effect" of scenario projects. Creating significant investment demand through scenarios facilitates the participation of Chongqing’s private enterprises and sci-tech companies in scenario construction, thereby boosting private capital investment.

Furthermore, scenario innovation provides a "new pathway" for coordinated regional development. Driven by supply-demand matchmaking, scenario innovation can attract advantageous resources such as technology, talent and capital from advanced regions, facilitating regional industrial integration and synergetic growth. Currently, Chongqing is formulating major scenarios for the Chengdu-Chongqing Economic Circle and the New International Land-Sea Trade Corridor, and nurturing major scenarios around regional plans like the integration of the Western Chongqing area, all of which are conducive to promoting cross-regional innovation synergy and industrial synergy.

Four Overlapping Advantages Pave the Way for Scenario Innovation

What advantages does Chongqing possess in scenario innovation at present?

"The overlapping of multiple national strategies is Chongqing's greatest advantage," Feng Yong pointed out. Currently, Chongqing is entrusted with multiple national strategies, including large-scale development of the western part of China in the new era, high-quality development of the Yangtze River Economic Belt, and the Chengdu-Chongqing Economic Circle. It has arranged trans-regional mega-projects such as the New International Land-Sea Trade Corridor, the Three Gorges New Water Transport Channel, the Chengdu-Chongqing Middle Line High-speed Railway, and the "Xinjiang-to-Chongqing Computing Resource Transfer" project. The city is also advancing the construction of major innovation platforms like the Western (Chongqing) Science City and the Liangjiang New Area Sci-Tech Innovation City. All of these provide critical backing for Chongqing to plan comprehensive, trans-regional and cross-domain major scenarios and to build a national testing ground for new technologies and new products.

At the same time, Chongqing enjoys the industrial scenario advantage of being a manufacturing huh. As a major industrial powerhouse and strong manufacturing city, Chongqing is building itself into an important national center for advanced manufacturing, with its total industrial economic output exceeding CNY 3 trillion. Its robust industrial foundation and complete industrial system provide natural proving grounds for future manufacturing and materials technologies, while industrial transformation, upgrading and the cultivation of new fields and new arenas harbor a massive demand for scenario applications.

In addition, the diverse demands arising from megacity governance hold inherent advantages for scenario innovation. Chongqing, the municipality with the largest jurisdictional area and population in China, integrates a mega city with vast rural areas, mountainous regions, and reservoir areas, covering all terrain types including mountains, hills, river valleys, and flatlands. This establishes a natural testing ground that spans cities, townships, mountains, water, forests, farmlands, lakes, and grasslands. Its unique geographical space and development pattern provide innate conditions for trans-regional, all-factor scenario innovation in areas such as low-altitude economy, satellite applications, ecological and environmental protection, smart water conservancy, and emergency rescue.

The construction of Digital Chongqing has solidified the foundational advantage for scenario cultivation. Chongqing is comprehensively building the "1361" Overall Deployment for Digital Chongqing and has established the nation's first municipality-wide integrated public data resource system. It has set up a digital urban operation and governance center featuring three-level connection across the whole municipality and five-level linkage. The "Yukuaiban" service platform integrates 2,926 government service items. A total of 205 AI+comprehensive scenarios have been reserved, 100 have been released, and 30 have been deployed in real-world operation. This not only provides a vast number of opportunities for verifying new digital and intelligent technologies, but also serves as a critical infrastructure for the construction of digital and intelligent scenarios, enabling Chongqing to take a leading position in city-level digital and intelligent scenario construction.

Accelerating the Creation of the Resonant Brand "Scenario Chongqing"

"The Action Plan proposes that by 2028, 'Scenario Chongqing' will become a nationally renowned brand in scenario innovation," said Lan Di, President of the Chongqing Institute of Great Wall Enterprise Institute. To this end, Chongqing has mapped out a practical pathway characterized by "three major features, three major fields, and three-dimensional synergy."

First, it seeks breakthroughs starting from three major features: the "Mountain City," the "River City," and the "Smart City."

Chongqing is deeply activating the "Mountain City" scenarios. For example, in the "low-altitude+" domain, it proposes "promoting the commercial application of drones in areas such as production operations, low-altitude transport, public governance, and low-altitude consumption," fully leveraging a mountainous city's rigid demand for low-altitude aircraft.

It fully unleashes the ecological value of the "River City" by deploying a series of distinctive scenarios relying on the golden waterway of the Yangtze River and the resources of the Three Gorges Reservoir area. For instance, in the field of smart water conservancy, it emphasizes opening application scenarios such as "promoting an integrated 'space-air-ground-water-engineering' monitoring and sensing system, the construction and management of water network projects, and inspections of rivers, lakes, and reservoirs."

It fully integrates into the construction needs of the "Smart City," transforming the extensive requirements of Digital Chongqing construction into critical support for scenario innovation. For example, it puts forward actions to "iteratively implement the 'Starry Sky' Action Plan" and "deeply carry out the manufacturing digital transformation 'Tiangong Huanxin (Skywork Renewal)' Action," using branded engineering initiatives to drive scenario implementation.

Second, it targets three major fields for pioneering demonstration: megacity governance, low-altitude economy development, and artificial intelligence.

Chongqing's urban-rural dual structure is pronounced - the central urban metropolitan area is highly urbanized, while it also administers a large number of mountainous districts and counties, generating differentiated scenario demands. To this end, Chongqing proposes optimizing application scenarios for "Efficiently Handling One Matter," continuously improving the service quality and efficiency of "People Call, We Respond," and deeply integrating its locally pioneered social governance brand with AI technologies, demonstrating strong local recognizability.

Chongqing is also one of the most systematic provincial-level arrangements for low-altitude economy nationwide. The Action Plan focuses on building a comprehensive system for scenario cultivation in the low-altitude economy. For example, it proposes exploring and expanding "ground-air coordination," accelerating the cultivation of integrated application scenarios for Beidou system and satellite Internet, and continuously expanding the all-space unmanned system.

In artificial intelligence, Chongqing proposes deepening the implementation of major (key) municipal-level science and technology special projects, with specific deployments tackling key technological directions such as intelligent manufacturing, intelligent driving, and embodied intelligent robots, so as to empower technological innovation through scenario application.

Third, it constructs an open ecosystem for scenarios through regional synergy, actor synergy, and factor synergy.

In terms of regional synergy, Chongqing leverages the scenario advantages of the Chengdu-Chongqing Economic Circle, deploying and promoting clean energy cooperation between Sichuan and Chongqing and accelerating the construction of application scenarios such as the Chengdu-Chongqing Hydrogen Corridor, Electric Corridor, and Intelligent Driving Corridor, thereby placing scenario innovation within the broader picture of coordinated regional development.

In terms of actor synergy, Chongqing is building a collaborative ecosystem integrating "government, industry academia, research, finance, and application." It plans to form a scenario innovation ecosystem alliance by drawing on high-end think tanks, chain leader enterprises, financial institutions, research institutes, and key development zones, while supporting market-oriented entities in providing scenario supply-demand matchmaking services to enhance the professional capacity of scenario services.

In terms of factor synergy, Chongqing promotes reforms in market access, scenarios, and production factors, fully leveraging the supporting role of factors such as technology, land, data, talent, resources, and the environment, so as to empower comprehensive scenario construction through the integrated and synergetic allocation of all factors.

Source: Chongqing Daily