During the 11th National Five-Year Plan period, the government of Qujing planned to develop the city into the "big city at the origin of the Pearl River" (珠江源大城市) in the following decades, including increasing the built-up urban area to past 100 km2 (39 sq mi) and the urban population to surpass 1 million by 2020, the second in Yunnan, after Kunming.

There is a plan for a speed train to run between Chengdu and Nanning by the year 2015, which will make the trip from Kunming to Qujing only 30 minutes long.

Tobacco, automobiles, power generation and chemical engineering are the main industries in Qujing.

It is located in the east of urban Qujing, the second largest city in Yunnan in terms of economic strengths.

As an agency under Qujing municipal Party committee and municipal government, the administrative commission of QETDZ functions as an economy supervising body at the prefecture level and an administration body at the county level.

It shoulders the task of building a new 40-square-kilometer city area and providing service for a population of 400,000 in the upcoming 10 years.