Foreign trade with Africa in 2021 hit 14.4 billion yuan, up 78.7 percent year-on-year.

Changsha in Hunan province is stepping up efforts to upgrade the local manufacturing industry and boost higher-level opening-up in a bid to unleash the potential for its high-quality development.

On Tuesday, the city government issued a new policy to attract businesses. For Fortune Global 500 companies, top 500 Chinese businesses and top 500 Chinese private businesses that invest in Changsha for the first time, the city will increase its incentives from 4 million yuan ($558,240) to 10 million yuan.

The city will focus on attracting advanced manufacturing businesses, as well as projects related to 22 industrial chains. Foreign trade businesses will be given priority in the city's investment attraction move, according to Zheng Ping, head of the commerce bureau of Changsha.

In recent years, Changsha has initiated a series of innovations in institutional regulations and management standards, building up the ability to increase foreign trade and implement a development strategy in its pilot free trade zone. Some practices of the Changsha area of the China (Hunan) Pilot Free Trade Zone were nominated as demonstration cases several times for innovation.

Since early December, the authority of the Changsha area of the China (Hunan) Pilot Free Trade Zone has seen several business visits and project negotiations with delegations from Singapore and other countries.

Through such efforts, the authority tapped into the opportunity to promote economic cooperation and foreign trade with those countries, especially those hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The export volume of firsthand machines produced in the zone now accounts for 25 percent of total national exports. The zone has been launching new policies to boost the export of secondhand equipment.

A total of 16 secondhand construction machines were exported on Oct 16 to 11 countries, including Uzbekistan, Vietnam and Egypt, kicking off the zone's new practice in boosting the exports of secondhand construction machinery and equipment.

As a global high-end equipment manufacturing base, the zone has gathered some 180 construction machinery-related enterprises such as Sany Heavy Industry, China Railway Construction Heavy Industry and Sunward Intelligent Equipment.

Since the establishment of the zone in 2020, it has generated 80 new practices in administration innovation. By introducing 174 key projects, it has attracted total investment with a turnover of 253.5 billion yuan. The total amount of foreign trade stood at 220.9 billion yuan, and 14,000 new enterprises were established there.

Changsha has set up six ports serving multiple functions and seven national-level bases for foreign trade transformation and upgrading. Some major projects and industrial bases have been granted national-level pilot areas for cross-border e-commerce business or market-oriented procurement business.

Building up some key platforms bridging business with Africa is another core content under the framework of Changsha's high-level opening-up, since the Changsha area of the China (Hunan) Pilot Free Trade Zone is the only one positioned as a pilot zone serving economic and trade cooperation between China and Africa, officials said.

Changsha's foreign trade with Africa in 2021 reached 14.4 billion yuan, up 78.7 percent year-on-year, 52 percentage points higher than that of the average level in the country.

A dazzling array of African goods including Rwandan chili sauce, Ethiopian coffee and Tanzanian cashew nuts were spotted in the China-Africa economic and trade demonstration area in the city's Yuhua district.

"The launch of the China-Africa economic and trade demonstration area in Hunan has unveiled a new model for exploring huge cooperation opportunities for Chinese and African enterprises," said Mbelwa Kairuki, Tanzanian ambassador to China.

The third session of the China-Africa Economic and Trade Expo will be held in Changsha in June 2023. At that time, the economic and trade ties between Changsha and Africa will see a new stage of development and results, officials said.

As an inland city, Changsha doesn't enjoy many advantages for maritime trade so the city is making full use of the existing resources it has including river ports, air routes, land and other major channels.

China-Europe freight trains are becoming a major force. A train carrying Geely cars from Changsha to Minsk, the capital of Belarus, is a standout example.

In the past, Geely would transport its products from Hunan to Belarus by sea from Ningbo Port in Zhejiang province, and then to Minsk through the Russian railway system. That took at least one and a half months. Now, Geely's products can be transported to Minsk directly by train.

Data show that since the first freight train was launched in 2014, the China-Europe express system in Changsha has operated more than 3,300 trains in total. More than 10 routes are operating on schedule, which can connect nearly 100 cities in 24 Asian and European countries.

In the face of the COVID-19 pandemic, the city is taking the lead in maintaining international cargo routes in the air. An international flight carrying 1,837 pieces of e-commerce goods took off from Changsha Huanghua International Airport on Dec 1 and reached Bournemouth in the United Kingdom. It is a new cargo route from Hunan province to Europe that opened this year.

Changsha has resumed or added eight international freight routes, including those connecting Osaka, Japan, Manila, the Philippines, Bangkok, Thailand, and Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Huanghua International Airport has opened direct flights to five continents.

On the water transportation front, the international shipping routes of Changsha also achieved prominent growth in transportation volume, with an annual container throughput of 200,200 twenty-foot equivalent units, a record year-on-year increase of 38 percent.

Thanks to those efforts, foreign capital has reported on Changsha favorably. Data show that the foreign capital in actual use registered $2 billion in 2021 in the city, ranking it first among the capital cities in the provinces located in Central China.

From January to August, Changsha actually used $2.1 billion in foreign capital, ranking it first in the region. The foreign trade volume increased by 22.6 percent year-on-year, 12.4 percentage points higher than the national average.

"Changsha has a complete industrial chain and high-quality business environment, which creates favorable conditions for the development of enterprises," said Mario Pastore, CEO of Changsha Ximai Machinery Manufacturing.

"Nowadays, Ximai is constantly exploring the adoption of new materials, new processes and new equipment, and is gradually having an automatic and intelligent production line, in a bid to become a world-class machinery enterprise," Pastore said.

By introducing a series of talent and foreign investment policies and establishing special funds for the open economy, the city is now home to 180 Fortune Global 500 companies. The number of foreign capital market players in the city totaled 4,822 so far.