Covering just six ten-thousandths of the province's area, they contribute nearly thirty percent of the province's total foreign trade—

The Three Major Areas of Hunan FTZ, "Powerful Engines" for Hunan's Opening-up

In September 2020, the China (Hunan) Pilot Free Trade Zone (FTZ) was approved and established, marking its fifth anniversary this September.

The three major areas of Hunan FTZ in Changsha, Yueyang, and Chenzhou have "boldly ventured, boldly experimented, and independently reformed," contributing nearly 30% of the province's total foreign trade with just six ten-thousandths of the province's area, becoming the "powerful engines" for Hunan's opening-up and development.

On September 28, the Information Office of the Hunan Provincial People's Government held a press conference to report on the achievements of the five-year construction of the Hunan FTZ. Shen Yumou, director of the Department of Commerce of Hunan Province, stated that efforts will be intensified to deepen institutional innovation, boost industrial upgrading, and serve regional coordination, transforming this 119.76 square kilometers of vibrant land into a benchmark demonstration of reform and opening-up in inland regions.

Changsha Area—

Promoting Innovative Development Across the Entire Equipment Manufacturing Industrial Chain

"The Capital of Construction Machinery" is Changsha's shining "golden calling card."

"Leveraging the 250 billion CNY industrial scale of construction machinery and five of the World's Top 50 construction machinery enterprises, we focus on the five links of 'R&D—production—export—certification—remanufacturing' to drive innovative development across the entire equipment manufacturing industrial chain," introduced Zhou Min, secretary of the Party Working Committee of the Hunan FTZ Changsha Area. Over the past five years, the Changsha Area has achieved 53 provincial-level institutional innovation outcomes, of which four have been selected as national "Best Practice Cases" and "Pilot Reform Experiences" for free trade zones, and six have been recommended by national ministries and commissions.

There is a large backlog of used construction machinery domestically, but overseas demand is growing daily. How can we connect the internal and external dual cycles to transform this inventory "burden" into new export momentum?

The Changsha Area took the lead in reforming the construction machinery remanufacturing system. Over three years, it tackled the three major pain points: difficulties in disposing of legal machinery, challenges in remanufacturing quality control, and problems in obtaining input invoices. It formulated and published three local standards and eight group standards, making remanufacturing standards the entry standards for foreign industries. Currently, it has gathered and fostered nearly 400 enterprises, with exported equipment exceeding 3 billion CNY.

Over five years, the Changsha Area has established a new comprehensive system for going global.

To better integrate equipment manufacturing enterprises into the global industrial and supply chains, the Changsha Area explored international youth innovation and entrepreneurship, guiding international students in Hunan to become "Chinese managers"; conducted new types of barter trade, opening up new sales paths for remanufactured equipment; guided enterprises to plan and build overseas warehouses to enhance international market service capabilities; and, built the Hunan-Hainan Advanced Manufacturing Co-construction Industrial Park, which became the first "zone-port co-construction" park among national free trade zones, achieving "overseas access through a detour."

Currently, the overseas revenue share of enterprises like SANY and Zoomlion exceeds 50%, with products covering markets in over 20 countries, including Indonesia and Ghana. Since its approval, the Changsha Area has achieved double-digit average annual growth in foreign trade and investment, with an average annual growth of 141% in trade with Africa.

Yueyang Area—

Deeply Cultivating "Water Economy" and Strengthening "Port Economy"

The Yueyang Area's resources lie in its "pristine waters," and its distinctiveness in its "deep-water fine port."

The "inland river freight deduction" measure implemented by national customs originated from the pioneering efforts of the Yueyang Area. For transshipment goods cleared at Yueyang, tariffs can be calculated after deducting inland river freight based on enterprise declarations, leveling the tariff costs between inland rivers and coastal ports. To date, 293 enterprises have benefited, saving a cumulative tax burden of 20.56 million CNY since the pilot initiated.

The nationally pioneering "Yangtze River Economic Belt Logistics Coordinated Development Model" connects ports along the belt through multimodal transport, significantly enhancing the exchange capacity of goods, capital, and information flows, and driving an average annual increase of approximately 700,000 TEUs of containers at ports along the belt.

"The Yueyang Area's advantage lies in its port, and we innovated the 'master key' to break through difficulties," introduced Guo Zhanyang, vice mayor of Yueyang. Over five years, two institutional innovation outcomes from the Yueyang Area were selected as national "Best Practice Cases" for free trade zones, and three were recommended by national ministries and commissions, cumulatively reducing costs and increasing efficiency for enterprises by over 400 million CNY.

Relying on its "river and lake" resources, the Yueyang Area deeply cultivates the "water economy" and strengthens the "port economy." In five years, the zone attracted 12 enterprises of the Fortune Global 500, top 500 Chinese, and top 500 Chinese private enterprises, fostered 227 enterprises with annual tax payments exceeding one million CNY, and accelerated the formation of a port-side characteristic industrial chain.

Industrial leaders like Panhua Group have taken root. INOVANCE Technology is building the China's largest production base for servo motors. Himit has become the world's largest remote control production base. Furthermore, Tsinghua Unigroup projects with total investments exceeding 40 billion CNY are successively implemented and are expected to establish the largest "semiconductor + green intelligent computing" base in the central regions of China.

Guo Zhanyang noted that the Yueyang Area contributes nearly 90% of the city's total foreign trade import and export value, becoming an important gateway for Hunan to connect with the Yangtze River Economic Belt and the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area (GBA).

Chenzhou Area—

Connecting with the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area (GBA), Forging a Unique Chenzhou Path of "Integration into the Bay"

Chenzhou, Hunan's "southern gateway," naturally possesses advantages in connecting with the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao GBA.

How to forge a unique Chenzhou path of "integration into the bay"? Institutional innovation is the core lever.

Chenzhou pioneered the Hunan-Guangdong-Hong Kong "Single E-lock Scheme (SELS)" customs clearance model outside Guangdong. Through mutual recognition of supervision, mutual assistance in law enforcement, and mutual sharing of information, it enables automatic and rapid inspection and release of goods between the three customs territories, improving goods transport efficiency by over 50%. From January to August this year, 247 batches of goods worth 429 million CNY underwent rapid customs clearance, a year-on-year increase of 56.33%.

Chenzhou actively explored new mechanisms for undertaking the entire chain of industrial transfers from Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao. From January to August, Chenzhou newly introduced 230 major investment projects with an investment of over 200 million CNY each, totaling 119.616 billion CNY in investment, of which 80% came from the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao GBA.

Over five years, leveraging the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao GBA, the Chenzhou Area's new non-ferrous metal materials, electronic information technology, and advanced equipment manufacturing sectors have developed a clustered growth trend with leading enterprises as chain masters, driving upstream and downstream industries along the chain. The industrial output value above designated size for these "two primary and one special" industries grew from 20.54 billion CNY in 2020 to 31.73 billion CNY in 2024, with the new advanced non-ferrous metal materials cluster recognized as a national-level innovative industrial cluster.

Tang Liyong, vice mayor of Chenzhou, remarked that focusing on industrial transfer, the Chenzhou Area will further explore new models such as "headquarters + production base," jointly build "enclave industrial parks," continue to expand advantageous industries like new non-ferrous metal materials, electronic information, and modern equipment manufacturing, and promote the deep integration of industrial and supply chains.

Chinese source: hunan.gov.cn