On February 28, the reporter learned from Huaihua Bureau of Commerce that in 2024, all parties in Huaihua City thoroughly implemented the “five new missions and four orientations” strategy in line with the “three highlands and four new missions” vision. Guided by the “implementation of the Eight Actions”, especially “the action to stimulate demand”, the city went all out to advance the “Year of Investment Promotion” and actively implemented a package of national measures and policies to stabilize foreign trade and expand domestic demand, achieving stable and positive progress in business and open economy and witnessing improvement in both quantity and quality.

The consumer market grew steadily. In 2024, Huaihua’s total retail sales of consumer goods reached RMB81,506 million, an increase of 6%, surpassing the national and provincial averages by 2.5 and 0.6 percentage points, respectively. In the past year, the city took numerous measures to bolster up the consumer market. The dragon boat race, Village Basketball Association and Xiaohua, a barber that truly understands customers’ needs made a splash, rendering Huaihua a popular consumption spot. Throughout the year, the city held 1,052 activities to boost consumption and over 600 activities to trade in old consumer goods for new ones, directly driving sales of automobiles, home decoration and home appliances by over RMB1.6 billion. The city moved faster to advance the development of regional consumption hubs. The number of provincial nighttime consumption demonstration clusters increased to seven, which include the Qianyang Ancient Town, Hongjiang City and the Yuanxichuan life and night economy experience zone (Yuanling). The city successfully introduced brands such as Chayan Yuese, Wyndham Hotels & Resorts and Huogongdian to boost debut economy. It fostered 1,072 commercial enterprises above the designated limit, with an increase of 543 or 98% in the past three years.

Huaihua maintained its leadership in foreign trade. In 2024, the city’s total imports and exports reached RMB13.76 billion. Specifically, exports amounted to RMB12.39 billion, an increase of 34.6%, passing the RMB10 billion mark for the first time in history. Imports amounted to RMB1.37 billion, an increase of 19.5%. In the past year, the city, relying on its international land port, accelerated the formation of a foreign trade industry cluster dominated by bags, agricultural products, electronic information, bamboo and wood products, and fine chemicals. Huaihua’s exports of agricultural products amounted to RMB1.26 billion, a year-on-year increase of 121.2%. Exports of bags and similar containers stood at RMB380 million, a year-on-year increase of 63.1%, driving the exports of zippers, pull rods, plastics and other intermediate products to exceed RMB30 million. A stream of new growth drivers for foreign trade development emerged. As the pilot project of combined shipment of fruits and vegetables from Mayang to Hong Kong was successfully implemented, Huaihua jumped to the second place in Hunan Province in terms of the proportion of vegetable exports. With the opening of the ASEAN fruit self-operation channels, the city completed fruit import for the first time. Huaihua International Land Port Economic Development Zone, in collaboration with Xinhuang and Zhongfang, developed the self-operated import channels for African minerals, leading to breakthroughs in the inflow of foreign trade data. The city also successfully exported the first batch of used cars to Jordan. Huaihua supported enterprises in expanding overseas markets. Its trade with Africa increased by 113.3%. Helishi and Afro-Asia International Investment Co., Ltd. signed orders of RMB100 million. The development of cross-border e-commerce accelerated. There are over 60 enterprises running cross-border e-commerce business in Huaihua, achieving imports and exports of RMB194 million, a year-on-year increase of 61.8%.

The quality and efficiency of investment promotion were improved. Huaihua introduced a total of 540 projects, with a total investment of RMB146,374 million, an increase of 12.73% and 6.61% year-on-year, achieving improvements and breakthroughs in both quantity and quality. By taking advantage of the Global Forum for Hunan Entrepreneurs, the city held over 300 events to boost the return of Hunan entrepreneurs. The returning Hunan entrepreneurs invested in and registered 152 enterprises, ranking third in Hunan Province. Relying on its international land port, Huaihua strove to promote investment in port industries and expanded foreign investment cooperation, with USD56.49 million of foreign capital used. All counties, cities and districts in Huaihua managed to introduce foreign capital. The city ranked first in the province in terms of the increase in the proportion of foreign-invested corporate enterprises and ranked second in terms of the use of foreign capital per capita in high-tech industries, which stood at USD8.85. To build the “5+10” modern industrial system, Huaihua introduced 517 projects of investment promotion through industrial chains, with a total investment of RMB139,662 million, accounting for 95.74% and 95.41%, respectively.

Open platforms witnessed expansion and quality improvement. Huaihua launched seven international logistics channels, including the China-Laos and China-Vietnam channels, and opened 155 transportation routes, both domestic and international. As a result, 70% of goods from the new western land-sea corridor were transported southward by way of Huaihua. The development of Huaihua International Land Port was included in the State Council’s Several Policies and Measures to Promote the Accelerated Rise of the Central Region in the New Era for the first time and was supported by the new 15 national measures for the construction of the new western land-sea corridor and the policies for expanding tax refund for ports of shipment. Guangxi Beibu Gulf Port Logistics Co., Ltd. and Guangxi Beibu Gulf International Intermodal Transport Development Co., Ltd. set up container return locations in Huaihua. The cargo throughput of Huaihua International Land Port topped eight million tons, up 22%. The first Yichang-Huaihua-Qinzhou Port sea-rail intermodal train was launched. Four cargo source cities were added, including Wuhan and Shangrao. The shipment volume of TEUs increased by 146%. The first Kunming-Huaihua cold-chain routine train on the Hunan-Yunnan-Lancang-Mekong line and the Zhanjiang-Huaihua-Vientiane continuous train that connects the new western land-sea corridor and the China-Laos line were launched. The collaboration of the five freight assembly centers in Hunan Province was deepened. The Yueyang-Huaihua-ASEAN continuous trains were added. Goods from over half of the cities and prefectures in Hunan Province were collected and distributed at the land port.

(Translated by Professor Yu Jie)