In the first half, Hunan's total import and export value hit 325.54 billion CNY, up 25.2% year on year, which was 15.8 percentage points higher than the national level. The actually used foreign investment was estimated to be doubled, while the paid-in domestic investment totaled 702.79 billion CNY with a year-on-year increase of 29.6%. The outbound investment grew by 13% to 1.19 billion USD. The turnover of the foreign contracted projects reached 750 million USD. The total retail sales of consumer goods rose by 1.5% to hit 902.93 billion CNY, with the growth rate of 2.2 percentage points higher than the national level.

 

The construction of the international logistics channels was fruitful. In the first six months, the number of China-Europe freight train trips reached 539, carrying goods worth 1.468 billion USD. The Yueyang Chenglingji Port had handled 369,000 TEUs, increasing by 20% over last year.

 

Ninety-one freight trains were launched through the Hunan-Guangdong-Africa rail-sea transport service, while 55 trains operated through the Huaihua-ASEAN freight train service.

 

New drivers of growth have been seen in open economy. Hunan was selected as a pilot region of three national programs, respectively the construction of the county-level commercial system, the building of agricultural product supply chain and cold-chain logistics system, and the integrated development of domestic and foreign trade.

 

For these three programs, a national project fund totaling more than 1.5 billion CNY is anticipated, with 295.5 million CNY being paid in this year.

 

The overall construction plan for the China-Africa Economic and Trade In-depth Cooperation Pilot Zone passed the preliminary examination of the Ministry of Commerce. The six provinces in central China—Hunan, Shanxi, Henan, Anhui, Hubei, and Jiangxi—and the commercial authorities of Hunan, Shanghai, Zhejiang, Guangdong, and Hainan, are jointly boosting Africa-oriented cooperation.

 

Substantial progresses have been made in the China-Laos 'One Railway and Two Zones' international economic and trade cooperation platform project which is operated by Hunan Province and the Laos Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry; and the Hunan-Côte d'Ivoire cooperative agricultural product processing factory.