Recently, the Ministry of Commerce and the State Administration for Market Regulation issued the Notice on Announcing the List of the Second Batch of Pilot Cities for State-level Service Industry Standardization (Commerce and Trade Circulation), which designates seven cities for state-level service industry standardization (commerce and trade circulation). Huaihua was also included on the list, and the pilot program will last two years.
Huaihua is the only intersection of the new western land-sea corridor and the great international land-sea trade corridor that connects the Indian Ocean in central China. It is also the only gateway city for building the new western land-sea corridor and ASEAN freight assembly center in Hunan Province. The city has the ninth largest train marshaling station in the country and 11 special railway lines. Six railway lines and eight highways intersect in the city in a snowflake shape. The city ranks first in Hunan Province in the traffic mileage of constructed highways. It boosts prominent regional and transportation advantages.
Relying on its international land port, Huaihua has launched seven international logistics channels including the China-Laos and China-Vietnam channels, and opened 155 transportation routes, both domestic and international. In 2024, Huaihua International Land Port launched 1,009 international train services, a year-on-year increase of 121.7%. Huaihua’s total foreign trade import and export volume stood at RMB13.76 billion, an increase of 32.9%, ranking first in the province for three years straight in terms of growth rate. Specifically, exports amounted to RMB12.39 billion, passing the RMB10 billion mark for the first time.
In recent years, Huaihua has issued policies such as the Huaihua Logistics Standardization Pilot Plan and invested RMB601 million to support the pilot program for commercial and logistics service standardization. The city has developed high-standard cold storage buildings with a storage capacity of 365,000 tons, an intelligent supply chain distribution platform represented by “Joy Speed + SF Express Group”, and intelligent highways, ports and logistics parks. It has built a three-level city-level commercial center system encompassing one core, three centers and seven locations. It is now home to 312 farmer’s markets, 47 county-level leading commercial and trade circulation enterprises, and 22 comprehensive commercial and trade service centers, with a coverage rate of 100%.
Since 2016, Huaihua has worked to implement 22 pilot programs including the logistics standardization of Boshikang, promoted the use of its logistics standardization logo, and established a freight distribution mechanism with “special platform, network, road, zone and logo”. At present, there are 31 A-level logistics enterprises in Huaihua, with 145,000 trays, 139,000 or 95.2% of which are standard trays. In the past three years, the city has also taken the lead in formulating two ISO international standards and two national standards, contributed to the formulation of three national standards, and formulated and revised 30 provincial and local standards.
Within the two-year pilot period, Huaihua will work to plan and establish a standardized agricultural product market system, improve the level of standardization and intelligence and brand building, and enhance the efficiency of logistics standardization. It will advance cost reduction and efficiency improvement in commercial and trade circulation through standardization, actively promote pilot experience and models, vigorously play its demonstration and leading role as a pilot city, and facilitate the high-quality development of commercial and trade circulation enterprises across Huaihua City.
(Translated by Professor Yu Jie)