[7] According to the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security, the registered unemployment rate in Chongqing was 2.96% by the end of 2018, with its lowest recording being 2.9% in 1997 and the highest being 4.120% in 2005.

For instance, the Jiangbeizui CBD is a large central business district is being constructed in the centre of the city of Chongqing, which was due to be completed in 2018.

[citation needed] After the construction of Shudao, a complex road system that overcame the natural barriers, Chongqing successfully connected with China's powerful Central Plains regime and initiated cultural and political communication.

[citation needed] It is only after the Ming and Qing dynasty, during which the ports in the Yangtze river were put in use, did Chongqing become the regional economic and trade centre.

[citation needed] They provided material resources, labour and agricultural products after shipping in the Yangtze river was commenced, which enabled Chongqing to develop its economic and initiate the process of modernisation.

[15] After the proclamation of the People's Republic of China in 1949, Chongqing undertook further industrial development due to extensive resources found in its vicinity, such as iron and coal.

[1] For example, the transcontinental Chongqing-Xinjiang-Europe International Railway joins Chongqing and Duisburg in Germany to provide low cost transportation for exports from China or cargoes from Europe.

[18] The government of Chongqing is also planning to strengthen and expand this transportation network to achieve broader coverage of nearby Asian cities, mainly those that can be reached in four hours of flight time, such as Singapore and Hong Kong.

[19][20] The Chongqing model's political aspects focused mainly on ideology campaigns promoting Maoism and the style of party leadership,[19] while the economic aspects were concerned with urbanisation and attracting foreign direct investment (FDI) through low corporate tax rates and subsidies for foreign business, as well as investments in infrastructure.

[19][20] To achieve these goals, the government of Chongqing used means such as the distribution of over 3 million new Hukou status to migrant works from rural areas, which granted them education, social security and access to the urban health care system.

[22][23] This development plan focused on several western geographical regions, including Chongqing and Chengdu in the upper Yangtze river economic belt.

[22] It was also these infrastructure investments that stabilised Chongqing's economy during the Great Financial Crisis, unlike China's coastal cities which suffered from plunging exports.

[1] By investing in incentive packages and employing cluster strategy, Chongqing successfully transitioned into the electronics and car manufacturing industries.

[1] This was further aided by the completion of the Three Gorges Dam in 2008, the biggest hydropower station in the world, which has dramatically increased the river's shipping capacity and the dam's annual ship lock throughput reached 101 million tonnes in 2018[28] Another major economic reform for Chongqing is Paramount leader Xi Jinping's current "supply side structural reform", which aims to eliminate excessive productive capacity in the industrial sector and focus on domestic consumption and the services sector.

[10] This is coupled with the massive state funding from the Western Development Strategy,[22] resulting in fixed asset investment becoming the main driver of Chongqing's economy.

[4] This rapid increase in electronics manufacturing has incentivised a number of multinational corporations from the same industry, including IBM, Inventec and Hewlett-Packard to invest in Chongqing.

[6] According to a white paper by CCID Consulting, a top Chinese think tank, the Yangtze river region has become the number one cluster in China in terms of the advanced manufacturing industry.

[3][31] It was found in a survey by the European Chamber of Commerce that more than a third of foreign companies experienced poor enforcement of their contracts, such as delayed or uncompleted payments, by both state owned and private enterprises.