The China (Hunan) Pilot Free Trade Zone became a "high-frequency word" at the 2021 Hunan-Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area Investment and Trade Conference Week held at the end of July.

Main activities focused on introducing Hunan's Three Highlands and Four New Missions Strategy and Hunan Pilot Free Trade Zone. The zone’s three major areas of Changsha, Yueyang and Chenzhou made presentations to attract investment.

"Of the 261 provincial-level projects signed in this year’s conference week, more than one-third projects are associated with the pilot free trade zones," said Wang Tingkai, deputy director of the Hunan Provincial Department of Commerce.

A total of 4,832 enterprises have set up in Hunan Pilot Free Trade Zone during the period from being approved in September 2020 to late June 2021. Foreign direct investment in actual use reached 570 million U.S. dollars. A total of 223 projects with an investment of 203.682 billion yuan have been introduced. The zone has played a leading role in opening-up.

Recently, the "Implementation Opinions of the CPC Hunan Provincial Committee and Hunan Provincial People's Government on the ‘Guideline of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and the State Council on Promoting the High-quality Development of the Central Region in the New Era’ has made arrangements to build high-level open platforms.

Priority will be given to building Hunan Pilot Free Trade Zone with high standards. Pilot tasks for reform have been implemented one after another, and replicable experience has been promoted from Changsha, Yueyang, and Chenzhou areas to the whole province. Coordinated and interconnected development will be enhanced between the pilot free trade zone and the Changsha-Zhuzhou-Xiangtan National Independent Innovation Demonstration Zone, the national cross-border e-commerce comprehensive pilot zone, and provincial economic development zones and high-tech zones. This will help explore a national-level reform and innovation model. Hunan is accelerating legislation of its Hunan Pilot Free Trade Zone Regulations.

The China-Africa Economic and Trade Expo, which is permanently held in Hunan, is a national-level economic and trade platform. It plays a vital role in building a long-term mechanism for China-Africa economic and trade local cooperation. The second China-Africa Economic and Trade Expo will open soon, with the theme of "New Starting Point, New Opportunities, and New Contributions". It will write a new chapter in China-Africa cooperation.

The Implementation Opinions revealed that:
--The Xiangjiang New Area will be fostered into an important platform for opening-up, with Xiangyin and Xiangtan Jiuhua New Areas to be built;
--Cross-border e-commerce comprehensive pilot zones will be built in Changsha, Yueyang, Xiangtan, and Chenzhou, to create a cross-border e-commerce distribution center in central and western China;
--Efforts will be made to strengthen the construction of smart ports and single windows for foreign trade, promote port efficiency and fee reduction, improve port collection and distribution systems, and enhance port customs clearance and guarantee international transportation; and,
--The functions of bonded areas will be expanded and the transformation and upgrading of special customs supervision areas accelerated.

Hunan will continue to consolidate and upgrade open platforms and build an all-round, multi-level, and wide-ranging new pattern for opening-up and development.

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

Translator: Xiao Juan

Chinese source: hunan.gov.cn