The third Hunan (Yueyang) Port Economic and Trade Expo opened on November 11. Yi Pengfei, vice chairman of the CPPCC Hunan Provincial Committee delivered a speech and announced the start of the event. Winfred Nii Okai Hammond, Ghanaian ambassador to China; Zainab Massoro, minister plenipotentiary in the Tanzania Embassy to China; and Somkhit Vankham, consul general of the Lao People's Democratic Republic (PDR) to Changsha attended.

With the theme of "Boosting Port Economy and Facilitating Inland Openness", the expo aims to promote the development of port economy, facilitate port trade, strengthen port exchanges and cooperation, and advance global economic integration.

The expo lasts till November 14. A variety of activities are being held, including investment promotion conference and project signing ceremony; a forum on the economic and trade cooperative development of China-Africa ports; a forum on the coordinated and open development of pilot free trade zones in central and western parts of China; procurement matchmaking meeting for international ports' commercial and trade enterprises; field visits; and, exhibitions.

Forty-four projects with a total investment of more than 31.6 billion yuan were signed at the investment and trade promotion conference held on November 11. They involved intelligent equipment manufacturing, new materials, new energy and other fields.

Hunan Province has given full play to the role of ports as hubs in constructing the dual circulation strategy, driven high-level opening up and development with high-level port platforms, and coordinated the construction of international logistics channels including international air cargo transport, China-Europe (Changsha) freight train services, and Yueyang Chenglingji river-ocean combined transport. Efforts will be made to guide the high-quality development of special customs regulation zones, and accelerate the construction of the development pattern of "port + channel + industrial park + industry + market".

In 2021, Hunan saw the steady operation of China-Europe freight train services and has handled 1,000 freight train trips, being in the front rank nationwide. Yueyang City achieved a total import and export volume of 61.21 billion yuan, ranking second in the province.

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

Translator: Xiao Juan

Chinese source: Voice of Hunan