Southwest China's Chengdu City is racing to expand its low-altitude economic sector, as the city has seen an extensive use of drones in various scenarios such as aerial delivery, river monitoring, firefighting, urban management and industrial production.
In a mountainous resort in the county-level city of Pengzhou, tourists were enjoying the convenience brought by drone deliveries.
In the past, tourists had to drive nearly one hour to downtown areas for shopping or eating delicacies unavailable in the resort. But now, a drone delivery can meet their demands in just 10 minutes.
"I suddenly wanted to taste hotpot food today. So, I ordered a drone delivery service with a restaurant. I didn't expect the takeout would be sent to me in about 10 minutes," said a tourist.
As of now, Pengzhou City had opened 42 routes for drones, with up to 100 flights being conducted per day and over 2,000 orders having been placed for drone deliveries of food.
The thriving low-altitude economy in Chengdu is attributed to the establishment of the "Sky's Eye" -- a national-level civil unmanned aviation test base, which boasts a total of eight test sites and 14 major test scenarios and can accommodate the takeoff and landing of hundreds of unmanned aerial vehicles simultaneously.
"We conduct 10 to 20 flights from 09:00 to 18:00 every day, basically covering the whole opening time of the airspace," said Zheng Wenqiang, test flight director of a drone company.
Chengdu has now gathered over 110 upstream and downstream enterprises in the drone industrial chain. It strives to bring the size of its low-altitude manufacturing sector to more than 6.5 billion yuan (about 897 million U.S. dollars) and that of the whole low-altitude economic sector to over 26 billion yuan (about 3.59 billion U.S. dollars) at the end of this year.
The size of China's low-altitude economy exceeded 500 billion yuan (about 69 billion U.S. dollars) in 2023, up by 33.8 percent year on year, according to the CCID consulting, a think tank under the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.
As of February this year, there are more than 57,000 enterprises in China's low-altitude economic sector.
Chengdu strives to expand low-altitude economic sector
Peruvian business delegates have highlighted China's positive role in advancing global free trade, expressing their hope of further deepening trade and economic ties with the country after being encouraged by a written speech delivered on behalf of Chinese President Xi Jinping.
Ties between the two sides are in the spotlight as President Xi arrived in Peru's capital Lima on Thursday to pay a state visit to the Latin American country at the invitation of his Peruvian counterpart Dina Boluarte and to attend the 31st APEC Economic Leaders' Meeting, which is being held in Lima from Friday to Saturday.
Themed "Empower, Include, Grow", this year's meeting has gathered heads of state and other dignitaries from 21 member economies across the Asia-Pacific region, including China, the United States, and other major economies in Southeast Asia.
In a speech delivered on Xi's behalf by China's Minister of Commerce Wang Wentao at the APEC CEO Summit, the Chinese president called for efforts to guide economic globalization in the right direction, promoting an inclusive and universally beneficial globalization for the benefit of all countries and communities.
Jose Tam Perez, president of the Peruvian-Chinese Chamber of Commerce, a private institution founded to promote commercial exchange between Peru and China, said Xi's speech reflects China's strong advocacy for global free trade and opposition to protectionism, and emphasizes how China is playing an increasingly strong leadership role in the global economy.
"His speech was really inspiring because he's telling the world that China wants free trade and global trade and doesn't want protectionism measures. So that was very inspiring and very interesting to listen. China is taking the leadership of the world in the future of the world," said Tam Perez.
Another landmark moment in China-Peru ties came with the inauguration of the Chancay Port - a key project under the China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) - on Thursday, which was attended via video link by the presidents of both countries.
Julio Perez Alvan, president of the Peruvian Association of Exporters, a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting exports, described Xi's presence at the "extraordinary" ceremony as a positive sign of the strengthening bilateral relations between the two sides.
"It was a very emotional moment for everybody. Even if it was virtual, but it was a very emotional time for us. [It was] very important, and the presence of Mr. President [Xi] of China only seems to have confirmed that for the two countries, this port is very important for their future relations, for the strategic relations that we have between our two countries," said Perez Alvan.
The port, located 80 kilometers north of Lima, will slash the shipping time between China and Peru to 23 days, cutting logistics costs by over 20 percent and directly creating more than 8,000 jobs.
Peruvian businesses are also eying up more cooperation and trade opportunities, with the port expected to deliver a big boost in this regard.
"We export to China mainly mining, agriculture and fish. But we hope in the future to attract more investment from China to produce here in Peru. For example, [Chinese automaker] BYD really wants to build a factory here in Peru. And [with] different countries, other countries and other companies maybe in the short term we can support industrial growth situation. That's our goal," said Felipe James Callao, President of the National Society of Industries of Peru, a non-profit institution that promotes the development of the manufacturing industry.
Peruvian business delegates inspired by Xi's speech, seek stronger trade ties with China
