The United Nations Development Program (UNDP) will provide technical assistance to Chongqing city in western China to help develop the city's strategy for economic development in the coming century.

According to a document titled "Transfer of Knowledge Through Expatriate Nationals and Senior Technical Advisors Recruitment (TOKEN/STAR)" signed here today, UNDP will provide 200,000 US dollars to the Western Region Development of the 21st Century and Chongqing program.

The program, at a total cost of about 860,000 US dollars, is expected to bring in top-level international experts, both of Chinese and non-Chinese origins, to provide short-term advisory services to the city over the next three years.

An international symposium on development of China's western region will be convened in Chongqing this June.

As a major economic power in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River, Chongqing is taking the initiative to make itself into a strategic center in economy, finance, science, technology and culture that contributes to the development of the western region of China.