In the report to the 20th CPC National Congress, General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out that “we must fully and faithfully apply the new development philosophy on all fronts and promote high-standard opening up.” These remarks serve as the action guideline and basic principle for promoting high-standard opening up in the new development stage.

In the implementation of the Belt and Road strategy of the country, Huaihua serves as an important node city that connects Eurasia in the north and ASEAN in the south. It is also the only node city in Hunan Province on the New International Land-Sea Trade Corridor. Based on these realities, CPC Hunan Provincial Committee and People’s Government of Hunan Province entrusted Huaihua with the historic missions of developing itself into a gateway city aligning with the strategy of the New International Land-Sea Trade Corridor as well as an ASEAN freight assembly center and positioned Huaihua International Land Port as a provincial landmark project for building a new hub for reform and opening up in the inland region and the only international land port in the province. In recent years, Huaihua has thoroughly implemented the guiding principles of General Secretary Xi Jinping’s remarks on opening up, striven to achieve the “three highlands and four new missions” vision, and seized the opportunity to fulfill its missions. The city has seen good results in building open economy and rapid growth in main indicators. From January to August 2023, Huaihua registered a total import and export volume of RMB5.26 billion, a year-on-year increase of 124.1%, ranking first in Hunan Province for 15 months straight; utilized foreign capital of USD46.85 million, a year-on-year increase of 878%; and operated 272 trains, a year-on-year increase of 206%. It successfully joined the “13+2” inter-provincial consultation and cooperation mechanism, held the First Hunan (Huaihua) RCEP Economic and Trade Expo, and conducted more frequent economic and trade exchanges with ASEAN countries. It has initially formed the pattern of opening up that “serves the nation, integrates into ASEAN and connects the world”.

Next, all parties in the business circle of Huaihua City will align with the “three highlands and four new missions” vision, vigorously implement the “five new missions and four orientations” strategy, and carry out the “five tasks” and “seven actions” determined at the Fifth Plenary Session of the Sixth Municipal Party Central Committee. With an open mind, a broad vision and a pioneering spirit, they will work hard to promote Huaihua’s open economy, high-standard opening up and high-quality development.

Huaihua will serve the development of its international land port and continuously enhance the leading role of open platforms. In line with the goal of “growing the land port in two years”, the city will boost the development of the port industry. Specifically, Huaihua will build strong open platforms. It will work to build the Huaihua Collaboration Area of the China (Hunan) Pilot Free Trade Zone and facilitate the development of the bonded logistics center (B type), comprehensive cross-border e-commerce pilot zone, cross-border e-commerce supervision center and other open platforms, so as to improve goods collection services, ensure smooth customs clearance and enhance the comprehensive carrying capacity of the land port. Huaihua will also boost the development of the port industry. The city will redouble efforts to reach out to targeted enterprises such as China Co-op Group, Asia-Potash International and Neoent Bag & Suitcase, step up investment promotion of advantageous featured products such as broken rice, tapioca and spices, and facilitate the development of industrial parks such as the bag & suitcase industrial park, pre-made food industrial park and China supply & marketing Huaihua industrial park, in a bid to develop itself into an “international city of bag & suitcase”.

Huaihua will strengthen regional collaboration and continuously improve the driving force of open channels. Specifically, the city will work harder to integrate into the New International Land-Sea Trade Corridor. Relying on the “13+2” inter-provincial consultation and cooperation mechanism, it will step up interaction with Beibu Gulf, Guangzhou, Chongqing and other important node cities and make good use of such customs clearance mechanisms as the “integrated port”, “port connect” and the mechanism where the four customs districts adopt consistent customs clearance procedures, so as to better align with and integrate into the New International Land-Sea Trade Corridor in terms of platform building, industrial development, policies and mechanisms. The city will expand international trade channels across the board. By giving play to the role of the China-Laos Railway as a golden transport channel and seizing the development opportunity of the Kunming-Singapore Railway, it will build on its strengths in railway transportation, deepen collaboration with the Bangkok Port (in Thailand), Vientiane Port (in Laos) and other key ports in ASEAN countries, and better distribute overseas warehouses. It will launch high-frequency international freight trains. It will strive to operate 400 trains in 2023 and over 1,000 trains in 2026. The city will make a major push to develop the freight assembly center. It will step up collaboration with freight assembly spots inside and outside the province, advance the effective implementation of the centralized freight transport agreement of Hunan, Hubei and Jiangxi, and give play to the national logistics hub for commercial services, national key cold chain logistics base, national multi-functional node city and other nationally recognized functions to establish a first-class freight assembly center in central and western China.

Huaihua will work to cultivate enterprises and make ongoing efforts to enhance the supporting role of entities for opening up. It will regard foreign trade industries and market entities as the core engines that drive the growth of foreign trade import and export and redouble efforts to carry out work in a solid and meticulous manner. Specifically, the city will build up key foreign trade industries. It will focus on developing characteristic foreign trade industrial bases such as the electronic information industrial base in Yuanling, fine chemicals industrial base in Hongjiang District and bag & suitcase industrial base in Huaihua International Land Port Economic Development Zone, extend the export industrial chains and increase the added value of export products. The city will foster leading foreign trade enterprises. It will give priority to supporting leading foreign trade enterprises such as Chenzhou Mining, Qianyang Foreign Trade, Chilisin and ASIX, advance the implementation of various foreign trade projects under discussion, such as the project of CLOU Electronics, and work to cultivate and introduce production-oriented foreign trade enterprises and processing trade enterprises. The city will also expand new forms of foreign trade. By fully leveraging the e-commerce and foreign trade comprehensive service platforms, it will introduce mature cross-border e-commerce enterprises such as Hunan Airport Industry Co., Ltd., and step up support for cross-border e-commerce, overseas warehouses, market procurement and other new forms of business.

Huaihua will seek closer economic and trade cooperation and enhance the influence of brands for opening up. It will promote alignment with the RCEP trade rules, better play the role of the domestic and international markets, and deepen foreign economic and trade cooperation. Specifically, the city will work to develop renowned MICE brands. It will make every effort to build the open platform of the Hunan (Huaihua) RCEP Economic and Trade Expo and promote this brand and extensively draw on practices of running brand exhibitions, in a bid to host high-quality, high-level and high-standard international exhibitions. The city will strengthen international economic and trade cooperation. It will better align with the province-wide “Longping Countryside” international agricultural cooperation program, promote economic and trade cooperation with ASEAN and Africa in hybrid rice seed production and logistics distribution of potassic fertilizer, further burnish its image as a city that “changes the world with seed”, and develop itself into an “international city of seed industry”. It will also guide advantageous industries and key enterprises such as Hengguang Technology and Vanguard Group to work together to seek overseas development, leverage the platforms and support high-quality Belt and Road cooperation.

(Translated by Yu Jie)