Photo taken on Sept. 30, 2021 shows the night view of southwest China's Chongqing. (Xinhua/Liu Chan)

CHENGDU, Dec. 19 (Xinhua) -- The Chengdu-Chongqing economic circle will boost 160 key projects in 2022, involving about 2 trillion yuan (313.97 billion yuan), amid the country's efforts to foster a key growth pole in western China, local authorities said.

The Chengdu-Chongqing economic circle is another important regional development strategy, following the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, the Yangtze River Delta and the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area.

In October, the country issued a master plan for the construction of the Chengdu-Chongqing economic circle.

By 2025, the Chengdu-Chongqing economic circle will witness significant increases in economic strength, development vitality and international influence, and about 66 percent of its permanent residents are expected to be living in urban areas, said the plan.

Covering about 185,000 square km, the Chengdu-Chongqing economic circle takes up 1.9 percent of the country's total land territory. In 2019, the economic circle had a permanent population of around 96 million and a GDP of 6.3 trillion yuan, accounting for 6.9 percent and 6.3 percent of the national total, respectively.