On December 1, the Standing Committee of the Hunan Provincial People's Congress held a press conference to interpret the Regulations on Promoting Open Economy in Hunan Province (hereinafter referred to as the Regulations). The Regulations were passed and approved at the 19th Session of the Standing Committee of the 14th Hunan Provincial People's Congress and will come into effect on January 1, 2026.

The Regulations set out specific provisions on creating a market-oriented, law-based and internationalized first-class business environment, ensuring fair competition among all types of business entities, and strictly protecting the legitimate rights and interests of investors in accordance with the law. For example, the Regulations emphasize the protection of investor interests, clarify equal treatment and fair competition rights for all types of business entities, and enhance the government's integrity in contract fulfillment. The Regulations also optimize the efficiency of government services related to open economy, improve complaint mechanisms, and ensure timely response and proper resolution of enterprise demands.

Focusing on serving the building of a unified national market, the Regulations break down market barriers at the institutional level, specifying that governments and relevant departments establish and improve fair competition review mechanisms, as well as implement a unified national negative list for market access. Governments and relevant departments shall not formulate separate negative lists for market access. They shall promptly clean up and abolish policy provisions that impede the building of a unified market and fair competition.

Dai Shaoyi, deputy director of the Legislative Affairs Commission of the Standing Committee of the Hunan Provincial People's Congress, introduced that the Regulations are based on Hunan's industrial system, explicitly supporting the outward development of local advantageous industries, cultivating national-level foreign trade transformation and upgrading bases and provincial-level foreign trade characteristic industrial clusters, and actively developing new trade formats and models. The Regulations also promote distinctive and differentiated investment attraction, incorporating the initiatives of the return of Hunan entrepreneurs and alumni, and the revitalization of Hunan through local talents.

The Regulations also promote further reform exploration in high-level opening up, providing a legal basis and exploration space for Hunan to carry out pilot programs on open platforms such as the China (Hunan) Pilot Free Trade Zone and the Pioneering Zone for In-depth China-Africa Economic and Trade Cooperation, encouraging enterprises to participate in global industrial division of labor and cooperation in various ways, and supporting the construction of overseas economic and trade cooperation zones.

"Opening up is a systematic project, and the Regulations clarify the need to coordinate the relationships between opening up and development, reform, innovation, and security, constructing a multidimensional open ecosystem from all aspects," said Shi Fenggang, deputy director of the Department of Commerce of Hunan Province. He noted that the Regulations strengthen integrated innovation, focusing on key areas such as aligning with economic and trade rules and standard setting, data sharing and cross-border flows, entry-exit facilitation, credit guarantees, capital flows, and foreign-related legal safeguards, introducing a series of supporting institutional measures. The Regulations clarify that foreign affairs departments should provide fast and convenient approval channels for key investment promotion delegations, unblocking obstacles to opening up in inland regions and strengthening institutional support.

"The enactment of the Regulations represents an even clearer signal: Hunan's door to opening up will only grow wider, and the pace of opening up will only become more resolute," said Liu Mingzheng, first-level inspector of the Financial and Economic Affairs Committee of the Hunan Provincial People's Congress. He noted that the introduction of the Regulations guides and stabilizes social expectations for expanding openness, demonstrating to the outside world that Hunan is committed to building an open environment aligned with international high-standard economic and trade rules, which will further enhance investors' confidence in making long-term investments and strategic layouts in Hunan.

Chinese source: Chinanews