"Tropical Rainforest-Style" Innovation Ecosystem, a Must for Chongqing

In the recently concluded 2026 Chongqing Two Sessions, the Chongqing Municipal Government Work Report explicitly proposed "fostering a tropical rainforest-style innovation ecosystem". What deeper significance does this hold?

First, it is essential to understand the concept. A "tropical rainforest-style" innovation ecosystem likens the innovation environment to a tropical rainforest: towering trees (leading enterprises) stand tall; shrubs (small and medium-sized enterprises) grow luxuriantly; the herb layer (startups) flourishes vigorously; vines (cross-sector linkages) intertwine in all directions; sunlight and rain (policies, finance, and talent) provide inclusive nourishment, forming an organic whole characterized by diverse symbiosis, resource circulation, tolerance for failure, and self-repair.

The expression "tropical rainforest-style" innovation ecosystem is not rhetorical embellishment, but a profound upgrade in understanding the innovation environment construction. Chongqing's proposal at this moment directly addresses the practical issues of its current stage of development.

As a major manufacturing hub in western China, Chongqing has achieved remarkable innovation results in recent years. Focusing on the "33618" modern manufacturing cluster system, it is accelerating the layout of emerging industries such as intelligent connected new energy vehicles, integrated circuits, and energy storage technologies. High-tech enterprises are growing rapidly under the "doubling" action plan, energy consumption per unit of GDP is 30% lower than the national average, and green, low-carbon transformation is at the forefront.

However, Chongqing's innovation ecosystem remains confronted with multiple challenges, including the need to further enhance the integration of the innovation chain and the industrial chain, further optimize the coordination of AI computing power, core technologies, and application scenarios, and further improve the rate of commercialization of scientific and technological achievements.

At their core, these challenges reflect the phenomenon of "innovation islands", where industry, university, research, finance, services, and application operate in isolation, resource flows are constrained, collaboration among small, medium, and large enterprises is insufficient, fault-tolerance mechanisms are weak, and innovation factors struggle to aggregate efficiently.

Traditional innovation models often rely on government leadership or single-point breakthroughs by leading enterprises, which can easily lead to excessive concentration of resources and insufficient support for SMEs. Against the backdrop of mature ecosystems already formed in eastern coastal cities, if Chongqing continues along the old path, bottlenecks will only be amplified. It would be difficult to support its positioning as a regional science and technology innovation center, and equally hard to achieve multi-point flourishing within the "33618" modern manufacturing cluster system amid fierce competition.

A "tropical rainforest-style" innovation ecosystem offers a precisely targeted solution.

This model, through carriers such as integrated industrial innovation complexes, promotes a structure in which "leading enterprises take the lead, universities and research institutes provide support, and industrial chains are coordinated", directly addressing the "island" problem; through concept verification centers and pilot-scale platforms, as well as efficient linkage among equity, loans, bonds, insurance, and guarantees, seed funds are channeled into start-ups, SMEs, and hard technologies, directing capital to where it is most needed; full-cycle talent services 2.0 and a "co-runner" mechanism lower entrepreneurial barriers and enhance inclusiveness and tolerance for failure.

There remains a gap between "fostering" a "tropical rainforest-style" innovation ecosystem and achieving true "self-growth". How can it be done better? The key lies in avoiding excessive government intervention and showcase projects, removing institutional barriers to factor mobility, strengthening Chengdu-Chongqing regional coordination, and establishing evaluation mechanisms centered on enterprises' sense of gain and the rate of commercialization of achievements. Only by continuously optimizing policy supply and shifting from "offering preferential policies" to "improving the overall environment" can Chongqing's "innovation rainforest" grow from cultivated support into self-sustaining prosperity.

Source: Chongqing Daily