The Hunan Provincial People’s Government General Office on November 15th issued an Action Plan for Promoting High-quality Development of Open Economy and Building a Reform and Opening-up Hub in Inland Regions During the Period Between 2021 and 2023. According to the plan, Hunan’s total import and export value will hit 700 billion yuan by 2023.

The plan sets a goal of “striving to be in front rank in central China, and ascend in nationwide rankings”. It calls for promoting open economy in terms of scale, quality, and efficiency, to achieve that the annual growth rates of main indicators are higher than the average in inland regions; and the total volume rises steadily in national ranking and maintains in front rank in inland regions. By 2023, Hunan’s foreign trade will reach an annual average growth of over 15%; the foreign trade volume will hit 700 billion yuan; the ratio of dependence on foreign trade will rise to 14%; the foreign direct investment (FDI) will reach 3.5 billion US dollars; the foreign direct reinvestment will hit 30 billion US dollars; and, the domestic direct investment will exceed one trillion yuan. In these three years, the accumulative outbound investment will amount to more than 6 billion US dollars, and the turnover of foreign contracted projects will surpass 9 billion US dollars. The reform and pilot tasks for the Hunan Pilot Free Trade Zone will be accomplished, while in-depth reform in key fields will achieve remarkable progress. A high-level open economic system will be formed.

Nine specific projects will be launched as follows:
- participate in the Belt and Road Initiative, and carve out its role in the regional development strategy of the county, to roll out a specific project for implementing key opening-up plans;
- coordinate with industrial chains to increase dependence on foreign trade, support key industries to expand investment attraction, and boost global procurement and international marketing of Hunan products, to carry out a special project for coordinating industrial and supply chains;
- strengthen foreign trade entity enterprises, cultivate local transnational businesses, and make use of resources of commercial chambers and associations, to launch a special project for improving opening-up entities;
- probe into and collaborate with different countries and regions, optimize international market layout, and promote integration of domestic and foreign trade, to implement a specific project for expanding domestic and international markets;
- step up processing trade transformation and upgrading, boost service trade innovative development, and increase imports efficiency, to carry out a specific project for upgrading mode of trade;
- develop new business pattern of foreign trade, and improve compressive services for foreign trade, to roll out a specific project for exploring new business pattern and new mode;
- construct the Hunan Pilot Trade Zone at high standard, build a high-level hub of exhibition in inland regions, and construct the China-Africa Economic and Trade In-depth Cooperation Pilot Zone with high quality, to serve a specific project for constructing opening-up platforms;
- build international logistics channels, and propel port improvement and upgrading, to carry out a specific project for expediting international logistics; and,
- encourage differentiated opening up in cities and prefecture, and enhance the driving force of leading cities and counties, to launch a specific project for facilitating interconnected opening-up of cities and counties.  

This article is from Hunan Provincial Government www.enghunan.gov.cn.

Translator: Pang Yuehui

Chinese source: hunan.gov.cn