Hunan Province introduced 1.5 trillion CNY of domestic investment from outside the province in 2023, a year-on-year increase of 16.5%. There were 1,360 new enterprises set up by Hunan-born entrepreneurs in the province, with the paid-in investment of 591.5 billion CNY, the provincial commercial authority said on January 16, 2024.

According to the Investment Management Division, the quality of provincial actual utilization of foreign capital has been significantly improved, with the secondary industry accounting for 40.8% of the total, which was 7 percentage points higher than the same period in 2022.

Regional coordinated development has been effectively advanced. The actual use of foreign capital in the three cities in southern Hunan — Chenzhou, Yongzhou and Hengyang, the Dongting Lake area, and the western Hunan region, which collectively contribute to the overall share of the province, saw growth of 12%, 5%, and 6% respectively compared to 2022. In 2020, there were 56 districts and counties provincewide that did not receive any foreign investment. However, by 2023, this number significantly decreased to only 6.

In the first 11 months of 2023, the top three cities in terms of total investment attraction were Changsha, Chenzhou, and Yueyang. Yiyang, Huaihua, Xiangxi Tujia and Miao Autonomous Prefecture, Hengyang, and Zhangjiajie doubled their investment growth rates year on year. The top three national industrial parks in terms of total utilized foreign investment were the Changsha Economic and Technological Development Zone, Chenzhou High-tech Industrial Development Zone, and Changsha High-tech Industrial Development Zone.

Hunan was said to introduce identified methods for international cooperation industrial parks and zones, to strengthen their international collaboration in 2024. The province will prepare and organize such major events as the 13th Central China Investment and Trade Exposition, the Hunan Investment Promotion Week in European Countries, and the Hunan-Yangtze River Delta Economic and Trade Cooperation Promotion Week. Cities and prefecture across Hunan will establish work mechanism to contact their counterparts in major regions and countries, continuously pushing forward the whole process of tracking and service mechanism for key projects. It will also further optimize the investment environment.

Translator: Yu Jiangjiang

Chinese source: hunan.gov.cn