The 2026 Hunan (Huaihua)-ASEAN Economic and Trade Cooperation Exchange Meeting was held in Nanning, Guangxi on September 16. Huaihua showcased its three calling cards  — "City of Blessed Land," "City of Land Port," and "City That Understands You." It signed seven cooperation projects on the site, covering fresh fruit procurement, cold chain transportation, and export base construction.

The 2026 Hunan (Huaihua)-ASEAN Economic and Trade Cooperation Exchange Meeting. (Photo provided by the organizers)

At present, the pattern of China and ASEAN being each other's largest trading partners is becoming increasingly solid, and the trend of regional economic integration is unstoppable. Huaihua, located at the heart of the border regions shared by Hunan, Hubei, Chongqing, Guizhou, and Guangxi, is an important intersection of the New International Land-Sea Trade Corridor and the Shanghai-Kunming International Trade Corridor in central China. Huaihua and ASEAN have become increasingly close in economic and trade exchanges, thanks to the advancement of RCEP economic and trade cooperation. During the "14th Five-Year Plan" period (2021-2025), Huaihua's foreign trade with ASEAN reached 10.4 billion CNY, with an average annual growth of 96%.

Huaihua was included in the national "Overall Plan for the New International Land-Sea Trade Corridor" in 2019, and the CPC Hunan Provincial Committee and the People's Government of Hunan Province highlighted the Huaihua International Land Port as a landmark project for building Hunan into a reform and opening-up hub in the inland areas of China. The functional platform of the Huaihua International Land Port now has become increasingly complete. The port has opened seven international logistics corridors, with a transportation network covering 252 ports in 75 countries and regions. It has achieved "30-hour access to rivers and seas, and 3-day direct access to ASEAN." In 2025, the Huaihua International Land Port operated 1,220 train trips, with the China-Laos train dispatch volume ranking first in central China. Between January and August this year, a total of 957 train trips were dispatched, an increase of 15%.

The signing ceremony. (Photo provided by the organizers)

Relying on the land port hub, Huaihua is making every effort to build a "5+10" modern industrial system, with accelerated industrial clustering of machinery and equipment, bio-based materials, and luggage and leather goods. These industries have strong industrial complementarity and broad cooperation space with ASEAN. Since September 2021, the Huaihua International Land Port has invested a total of more than 8 billion CNY to build 69 key facilities such as a multimodal transport center and smart cold chain logistics center. It has handled about 70% of the southbound cargo distribution of the New International Land-Sea Trade Corridor.

Gao Jingsheng, deputy secretary of the CPC Huaihua Municipal Committee and acting mayor of Huaihua City, expressed his willingness to work with ASEAN countries to build a hub-linked "grand corridor." We could jointly build an industrial synergetic "ecosystem," create a "sound environment" for rule connectivity, and expand a "new blue ocean" for digital empowerment, he added.

It was learned that relying on the China-ASEAN Expo‌ (‌CAEXPO) platform, nearly 30 enterprises in Huaihua were pre-matched with 144 overseas enterprises to carry out matchmaking activities.

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

Translator: Yu Jiangjiang

Chinese source: Chinanews