An economic and trade delegation from Hunan Province visited Laos from November 21 to 24. The aim was to thoroughly apply President Xi Jinping's important instructions on deepening the building of a China-Laos community with a shared future, to advance the implementation of a 2024-2028 action plan on building the China-Laos community, and to implement fruitful results of Hunan Deputy Secretary Mao Weiming's visit to Laos. The efforts would help develop Hunan into a hub for cooperation with Laos. 

Mao Weiming, deputy secretary of the CPC Hunan Provincial Committee and governor of Hunan, led a delegation to visit Laos in September this year. 

During their visit, the delegation hosted the 2nd Hunan Equipment and Manufacturing ASEAN (Laos) Investment Expo in Vientiane, the capital of Laos. Appointed by the Hunan Provincial Government, the delegation participated in the opening ceremony of the 2023 That Luang Festival and a trade fair, visited the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry of Laos and the Economic and Commercial Office of the Embassy of China in Laos, and called on enterprises and chambers of commerce in Laos.

The expo had distinctive themes and achieved remarkable results. Combined with the market demand of Laos and Hunan's advantageous industries, a total of seven exhibition areas have been set up, involving agriculture, advanced manufacturing, trade logistics, Huaihua products, consumer goods, new energy equipment manufacturing, and outdoor construction machinery. A series of activities were held, including the opening ceremony of the expo, a special promotion conference of Huaihua City, an enterprise-government exchange meeting on cooperation in cassava, energy, and mining industry between Laos and Huaihua, and economic and trade matchmaking meetings among enterprises. More than 500 enterprises from Hunan and Laos participated and signed a number of cooperation agreements on the spot, with a contract amount of 610 million yuan.

The delegation also had in-depth exchanges with the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry of Laos on strengthening agricultural cooperation and accelerating the construction of the "one railway and two industrial parks" project, and listened to the suggestions by the Economic and Commercial Office of the Embassy of China in Laos on deepening economic and trade cooperation between Hunan and Laos. The delegation visited the Xuanye (Laos) Co., Ltd. and Hunan Chamber of Commerce in Laos, and inspected the Nahai substation project and Zoomlion's agricultural machinery flagship store in Vientiane.

In 2022, Hunan's total import and export volume with Laos reached 1.024 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 218.46%. Hunan has set up a total of 181 overseas investment enterprises in Laos, with a contract value of 880 million USD from Chinese side. Since January 2022, 81 trains from Huaihua to Laos have been operated, ranking first in central China, with goods valued at about 1.069 billion yuan. The "one railway and two industrial parks" project signed by the Hunan Provincial People's Government and the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry of Laos was selected as a practical cooperation deliverable of the 3rd Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation. 

Thanks to the opening of the China-Laos Railway, Hunan will build itself into a hub for cooperation with Laos through the following efforts:

-further seize the major historical opportunity of pursuing high-quality Belt and Road cooperation;

- fully implement the 2024-2028 action plan;

- give full play to Hunan's advantages to meet Laos' demands;

- improve economic and trade cooperation mechanism;

- build a platform for cooperation and exchange;

- continue to optimize the business environment;

- continuously innovate investment and financing models;

- accelerate the construction of a modern agricultural industrial park in Vientiane; and,

- promote the connectivity of trade, industries and market between Hunan and Laos. 

Translator: Xiao Juan