Seeing Chongqing's GDP increase by 14.4 percent year-on-year in the first quarter of 2012, foreign businesses are expressing confidence in the municipality's prospects for having strong economic growth and good investment opportunities in the near future.

Data from the local statistics bureau indicate that Chongqing's GDP reached 252.39 billion yuan ($40 billion) in the first quarter of the year. The city's 14.4-percent growth rate was the third fastest recorded among all provinces and municipalities and was 6.3 percentage points higher than the national average.

Meanwhile, the output value of foreign enterprises and joint ventures increased by 29.7 percent year-on-year in the first quarter, and many enterprises expressed optimism about the local economy's prospects for future growth.

"We are keen to further expand business here as we believe the economic growth in Chongqing will be a robust one," said Bryan Wei, director of key account management for the shipping and storage company TNT Express Worldwide (China) Ltd.

Last year, the company increased the size of its Chongqing import business fourfold and its Chongqing export business tenfold.

Other foreign businesses share Wei's optimism about the city's prospects for economic growth.

"Chongqing is one of the fastest developing cities in China, and the foreign international settlement center here will definitely be a new driver to our China business," said Alan Tien, the general manager of PayPal China.

Foreign enterprises expressed confidence in the future development of Chongqing after the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China appointed Vice-Premier Zhang Dejiang to replace Bo Xilai as secretary of the CPC Chongqing municipal committee on March 15.

The CPC Central Committee later decided to suspend Bo from his posts on the committee and its Political Bureau, saying "Bo is suspected of being involved in serious violations of discipline".

On Tuesday, Zhang met with Meg Whitman, CEO of Hewlett-Packard Co, and said the city would stick to the opening-up policy and maintain the continuity and stability of its policies.

To attract foreign capital, Chongqing will continue to make itself into a better place for investments, Zhang was quoted by Chongqing Daily as saying.

Whitman, for her part, reiterated Hewlett-Packard's commitment to Chongqing and said she hopes Hewlett-Packard and local authorities will cooperate more in the near future.

The Singapore-based DBS Bank (China) Ltd opened an outlet in Chongqing in January, its first inland in China.

"We want to leverage on our experience from Singapore and contribute to the growth in Chongqing as China works on boosting domestic demand and steering manufacturing activities inland," said Melvin Teo, bank CEO.

xuwei@chinadaily.com.cn