The tide rises and the cloud scuds. Huaihua, a city embracing five streams, is in its heyday. What unfolds here is a scene of autumn, utterly captivating.
As the only ASEAN freight assembly center in Hunan Province, Huaihua is moving faster to develop its international land port into a new hub for the reform and opening up in the inland region.
Five streams converging into the sea.
In recent years, Huaihua Bureau of Commerce has, in line with the “three highlands and four new missions” vision, thoroughly implemented the “five new missions and four orientations” strategy of the Huaihua Municipal Party Committee, prioritized high-level opening up and high-quality development, and bravely taken the lead in the development of Huaihua International Land Port, making new breakthroughs in commerce and open economy.
From January to August this year, Huaihua registered an import and export volume of RMB5.26 billion, a year-on-year increase of 124%, ranking first in Hunan Province for eight months straight in terms of growth rate. From January to September, Huaihua International Land Port launched 315 train services, a year-on-year increase of 192.3%. Among them, 36 trips were made on the China-Laos Railway, up 56.5% year on year, which exceeded the total trips made in 2022.
Building Huaihua International Land Port into a new hub for opening up and development
In the golden autumn, when you set foot in the Huaihua International Land Port, and when you stand in the forest of tower cranes at the construction site and hear the humming machines in the workshop, you can feel the passion for development and project construction here and there.
In recent years, Huaihua Bureau of Commerce has focused on the development of the Huaihua International Land Port. Bearing its responsibility and mission in mind, it has seized every moment to embrace the new era, embark on a new journey, and bravely take the lead in developing the land port.
Connecting externally and internally to develop convenient trade channels.
Externally, Huaihua Bureau of Commerce has assisted local logistics companies in signing strategic cooperation agreements with Connect Logistics Company of Laos and COSCO Shipping Lines (Cambodia), reaching a cooperative intention with Laos-China Railway Company, Thanaleng Dry Port of Laos, ZTO International Logistics and RUIHEJC (Myanmar), and founding the port-port alliance and port-airline alliance. It has also jointly built and shared the logistics base, distribution and collection center, public bonded warehouse, overseas warehouse and other supporting facilities with other stakeholders, so as to expand the ASEAN logistics service network.
Internally, Huaihua Bureau of Commerce has inspected Chongqing, Guangxi, Hubei and Jiangxi. It visited local governments and enterprises and implemented the “13+2” inter-provincial consultation and cooperation mechanism of the New International Land-Sea Trade Corridor and Hunan-Hubei-Jiangxi cooperation agreement, making breakthroughs in cross-regional cooperation.
On June 22 this year, a train loaded with 20 TEUs of 540 tons of ammonium sulfate arrived at Huaihua International Land Port. Then, it traveled southward along the China-Laos Railway, heading towards Luang Prabang of Laos. This was the first ASEAN-bound train driven by the combined efforts of Hunan, Hubei and Jiangxi.
In the meantime, Huaihua Bureau of Commerce has taken multiple measures to promote cost reduction and efficiency improvement in logistics. It has introduced supportive freight policies, lowered the railway rate, reduced or waived the port charges of inland ports and halved the tolls of provincial expressways, reducing logistics costs on an ongoing basis. It has also adopted integrated customs clearance, customs transit, fast customs clearance, freight forwarder, container return site and other methods to continuously improve the logistics and customs clearance efficiency of Huaihua International Land Port.
At present, Huaihua International Land Port operates five well-established rail routes (Huaihua-Beibu Gulf Port, Huaihua-Guangzhou Port, Huaihua-Zhanjiang Port, Huaihua-Laos and Huaihua-Vietnam) and one truck route. Specifically, the number of trains running on the China-Laos Railway ranked third among members of the New International Land-Sea Trade Corridor and first in central China.
Consolidating open platforms to expedite foreign trade.
The General Administration of Customs issued 15 key initiatives to support the development of the New International Land-Sea Trade Corridor. Taking this as an opportunity, Huaihua Bureau of Commerce has, based on others’ good practices in building open platforms, actively applied for and built the national open port, comprehensive cross-border e-commerce pilot zone and bonded logistic center (B type). This year, Huaihua was approved to establish the Collaboration Area of the China (Hunan) Pilot Free Trade Zone and managed to build the cross-border e-commerce supervision center, bonded warehouse and export supervision warehouse.
On July 22 this year, a China-Laos international train departed from Huaihua International Land Port to Vientiane of Laos. The train was loaded with over 2,900 shipments of cross-border e-commerce goods. The goods were declared by Houde Supply Chain Management (Huaihua) Co., Ltd. for export, which were subject to the supervision of Huaihua Customs. This marks that new channels have been explored for local quality products to expand the overseas market through cross-border e-commerce.
Huaihua Bureau of Commerce has joined hands with other parties to establish the cross-regional coordination mechanism. On March 6 this year, officers from Huaihua Bureau of Commerce and Huaihua Customs visited Xishuangbanna, Yunnan. There, they signed the Memorandum on Strengthening Customs Cooperation, established a cross-customs liaison and joint conference mechanism, resolved major issues in a coordinated way, and facilitated the customs clearance of imported and exported goods. So far, Huaihua Customs has signed the cooperation agreement with Qinzhou Port and Pingxiang Customs in Guangxi and Mengla Customs in Yunnan respectively, thereby initiating a new mode where the four customs districts adopt consistent customs clearance procedures. Subsequently, the officers visited the customs services in Hubei and Jiangxi for work coordination. They successively reached agreements with the customs services in Jinzhou, Ganjiang New Area, Yingtan and other places to keep logistics pathways smooth and foster the coordinated development of open platforms.
Relying on the Huaihua International Land Port and benefiting from the rapid operation of international trains, a number of key foreign trade enterprises including Hengguang Technology, Vanguard Group, Mengmeng International and Lumeng International have achieved substantial growth in import and export business. From January to August this year, Huaihua’s imports and exports with RCEP countries and ASEAN countries registered RMB2.01 billion and RMB1.55 billion respectively, up 105.1% and 178.8% year on year.
Deepening foreign exchanges to accelerate opening up and cooperation.
In June this year, the Huaihua economic and trade delegation went to Laos, Cambodia and Myanmar to carry out economic and trade exchanges. The delegation launched 28 activities, including investment promotion, visiting, inspection and informal talks and signed 12 project cooperation agreements. Through these moves, Huaihua can promote its economic and trade cooperation with ASEAN in hybrid rice seed production and logistics distribution of potassic fertilizer.
Huaihua has expanded economic and trade cooperation with Africa. The city organized and participated in the third China-Africa Economic and Trade Expo, during which it received officials from Malawi and Zimbabwe. The Minister of Agriculture of the Republic of Malawi visited Huaihua for inspection and, in the presence of President of Malawi Chakwera, signed the memorandum of cooperation with Huaihua in Changsha City. Huaihua and Malawi will seek cooperation in the R&D of hybrid rice breeding, promotion and application of agricultural machinery and characteristic agricultural product processing.
In May this year, Huaihua hosted the first Hunan (Huaihua) RCEP Economic and Trade Expo, which was attended by over 600 renowned enterprises, over 1,000 purchasers, 14 RCEP countries (including Australia, New Zealand, Thailand and Laos) and representatives from 14 cities along the New International Land-Sea Trade Corridor. This expo boasts the highest standard, largest scale, broadest influence and best results in Huaihua’s history. At present, the Hunan (Huaihua) RCEP Economic and Trade Expo has become a new platform for Hunan to seek economic and trade cooperation with RCEP, injecting new momentum for the high-level opening up and high-quality development across Hunan Province.
Huaihua held the Hunan-Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area Investment and Trade Conference Week and other exhibition activities, thus increasing and enriching the channels for external exchanges. From January to August this year, Huaihua obtained foreign direct investment of USD46.76 million, ranking third in the province, with a growth rate of 876.2%, the second highest in the province.
Huaihua guided Hengguang Technology in Hongjiang District, Zhantong Communications in Jingzhou, Vanguard Group in Chenxi and other enterprises to actively invest in ASEAN countries, thus improving and accelerating its foreign investment across the board. “We will cultivate 10,000 mu (666.67 hectares) of new quality hybrid rice varieties in Laos,” said Zhang Zhenhua, Chairman of Hunan OPULENT Technology Co., Ltd. The company sets out to establish quality grain production bases in Southeast Asian countries and then ship the grain back through Huaihua International Land Port. It aims to develop quality rice planting bases of 200,000 mu (13,333.33 hectares) in Laos in five years.
From hybrid rice planting and potassic fertilizer to chemical products, machine manufacturing and labor cooperation, from Laos to Indonesia to other ASEAN countries, Huaihua has kept broadening and deepening its contribution to the Belt and Road Initiative.
Pursuing further progress in investment promotion with a focus on top priorities
A bumper harvest in investment promotion in the golden autumn season.
On September 10, five bag & leatherware enterprises from Baigou Town, Hebei Province signed contracts to establish a presence in Huaihua International Land Port Economic Development Zone; on September 12, Zhongfang County signed 11 projects at the Bramble Grape Culture and Tourism Festival, with a total investment of RMB3,999 million; on September 14, the waste lithium iron phosphate battery comprehensive utilization project of Hunan Tiantai Tianrun New Energy Technology Co., Ltd. was launched in Huaihua Hi-tech Industrial Development Zone, with a total investment of RMB1 billion; on September 23, 26 major cultural and tourism projects were signed, with a total investment of RMB15.19 billion.
Huaihua Municipal Party Committee and People’s Government of Huaihua City have put investment promotion and the development of the Huaihua International Land Port on the top of the agenda. Both the officials and people in Huaihua City are obligated to do a good job in these two aspects. At present, the city has fostered an enabling environment for investment promotion. It endeavors to attract investment through every conference convened, every event held and every party involved, with further progress made in investment promotion.
Since the beginning of the year, Huaihua has given full play to the role of strategic pivot of its international land port, steadily improved its working mechanism, adopted precise investment promotion, and gone all out to develop the port industrial system. With a focus on developing the “1+N” port industry, the city has redoubled efforts to attract investment for the bag & suitcase industrial park, pre-made food industrial park and China supply & marketing industrial park projects. Thanks to these efforts, Hunan Xiangtong Industry invested RMB500 million in building the bag & suitcase base in the Huaihua International Land Port Economic Development Zone, and a number of port industrial projects were signed with Neoent (a Shanghai-based company), Kaiwei (a Jiangxi-based company) and other companies.
From January to September this year, Huaihua International Land Port introduced 30 new projects, with a total investment of RMB7,737 million, including three industrial projects with a scale of over RMB1 billion and five projects of the three types of top 500 enterprises. The city has thereby formed a “1+N” industrial system led by the bag & leatherware industry and supported by the commercial service, modern logistics, pre-made food and electronic component industries and embarked on a new development path integrating port, industry and city.
Huaihua has centered around the building of the new “5+N” modern industrial system and the “14+2” key industrial chains (industries). It has formulated the three-year action plan for precise investment promotion of industrial chains, established the mechanism where leaders of various industrial chains are responsible for investment promotion, formed the special leading group for investment promotion of industrial chains consisting of government departments and leading enterprises in the industrial chains, and created relevant databases and diagrams for key industrial chains (industries). Specifically, 295 new industrial chain projects were signed, with an overall investment of RMB105,477 million, accounting for 87.28% and 77.12% of the city’s total in terms of the number of projects and investment volume. Among these projects, 40 are enterprise investment projects of the three types of top 500 enterprises, including China Power International, SANY Group, NWY Group and Xiuzheng Pharmaceutical Group.
Huaihua has formulated and put into force the Implementation Plan of Huaihua for the Return of Hunan Entrepreneurs and Business Startups in Hunan; established an information base for fellow villagers of Huaihua; founded 212 special leading groups, 202 service stations for entrepreneurial guidance and 41 liaison stations with the help of the foreign chambers of commerce and associations for those returning to Huaihua to start business; and carried out over 1,000 symposiums, informal talks and special promotion conferences during the Spring Festival, Qingming Festival and other important dates. From January to September, 203 projects were signed with entrepreneurs returning to Hunan, including those signed with Neoent, Leyard Group and C-SmartLink, with a total investment of RMB73,729 million. The number of projects signed and investment amount increased by 167% and 111% year on year, respectively. 71 enterprises were newly registered by entrepreneurs returning to Hunan, which completed the provincial target for the year.
In addition, Huaihua has actively leveraged platforms to promote investment. In May this year, 113 projects were signed in the first Hunan (Huaihua) RCEP Economic and Trade Expo, with an overall investment of RMB75 billion. During the Hunan-Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area Investment and Trade Conference Week, Huaihua signed 31 projects, with an overall investment of RMB22.49 billion.
Huaihua Bureau of Commerce is ready to ride the wind and cleave the waves. It is striving to build a new hub for the reform and opening up in the inland region. Guided by reform, propelled by innovation and steered by hard work, Huaihua Bureau of Commerce will set sail from a new historical starting point towards a brighter future.
（Translated by Yu Jie）