Comprehensive Services Help Hunan Enterprises "Go Global"

Facing the complex and ever-changing foreign trade situation, how can small, medium, and micro enterprises overcome the obstacles of "not daring to, not knowing how to, and being blocked from going global"? This year, Hunan has taken the "Enterprise Service Year" as the lever to launch the "Hunan Trade Goes Global" service optimization year campaign. The campaign aims to build a service system covering the full lifecycle of enterprises going global.

From the "admission ticket" of a single exhibition to the industrial chain's "going global in groups," and then to the "systematic integration" of logistics, certification, and finance, Hunan's commerce system has offered multiple solutions in practice.

Lowering thresholds: enabling enterprises to take the "first step"

For small, medium, and micro enterprises going global, the first hurdle is not "not wanting to go," but "not daring to go." Exhibition booth fees, travel expenses, and sample shipping costs can easily reach over 100,000 CNY for a single exhibition, yet the outcomes are hard to predict. For small and medium enterprises with thin profit margins, this is a gamble.

The "Hunan Trade Goes Global" service optimization year campaign provides subsidies for enterprise booth, exhibit transportation, and personnel travel, with a single enterprise eligible for up to one million CNY in support, covering 208 overseas exhibitions. From the Hannover Messe in Germany to the Vietnam International Trade Fair, enterprises now have broader "options."

TOPIM Intelligent Manufacturing (Shaoyang) Co., Ltd. produces air fryers, electric pressure cookers, and small cleaning appliances of stable quality that suit international consumer markets. The high cost of participating in overseas exhibitions forced the company to rely on traditional foreign trade channels for years. It remained entrenched in Southeast Asian markets and found it hard to break into the high-end European and American markets.

"Thanks to the provincial and municipal 'Hunan Trade Goes Global' exhibition participation policies, enterprise exhibition costs dropped by 70%." Zhao Yue, general manager of TOPIM Intelligent Manufacturing (Shaoyang) Co., Ltd., said that this year the company boldly went global as part of a group for the first time, debuting at IFA Berlin in Germany. At the exhibition, their multifunctional air fryer, with its innovative structure and practical functions, secured an intended order worth 30 million CNY from a Greek client for one container of goods.

As the entry threshold lowers, more and more small and medium enterprises are taking their first step toward global markets.

This June, 32 enterprises from Changde collectively exhibited at the China-Africa Economic and Trade Expo in Africa (Morocco) in Casablanca, Morocco. They secured over 50 cooperation agreements on site and signed orders worth 15 million USD, with full success across the four sectors of clothing, food, machining, and agriculture. Their participation was coordinated by the Changde Foreign Economic and Trade Industry Association, with the Changde Municipal People's Government, Changde Municipal Commerce Bureau, Changde Branch of the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade, and Changde Municipal Returned Overseas Chinese Federation providing full-process policy support, matchmaking, and guarantees. For small and medium enterprises that had never entered the African market, the "group" model minimized unknown risks.

Lowering thresholds not only saves on exhibition fees but also reshapes the risk model for enterprises. Their cost of trial and error drops from "gambling with over 100,000 CNY" to "testing with tens of thousands of CNY," making it possible for the hesitant to take action.

Building capabilities: helping enterprises "step forward steadily"

Subsidies can solve the "entry ticket," but what happens after they get in? What truly helps enterprises "make steady progress" is a complete capability-building system.

Guiyang's answer is "running alongside." Guiyang County Tianshunxiang Ceramics Co., Ltd. has been engaged in domestic ceramic sales for over a decade. Last year, it began contacting overseas clients online and wanted to explore international markets but did not know where to start.

The Guiyang County Commerce Bureau, together with the Foreign Trade Comprehensive Service Center, formed a dedicated service team providing full-chain services for qualification processing, customs declaration and inspection, and logistics transportation. "Within a week, they helped us complete all the relevant procedures." Li Haiying, general manager of Tianshunxiang Ceramics, said that shortly after the procedures were completed, the company received its first overseas order, with a transaction value exceeding 100,000 CNY.

Relying on the closed-loop model of "registration—customs declaration—logistics—tax rebate—credit insurance—consultation," Guiyang County has cumulatively handled import and export qualifications for 13 enterprises and helped nine enterprises achieve their first foreign trade deals. In the first quarter of this year, the total import and export value of Guiyang County surged 356.3% year on year.

Ningxiang's answer is "grouping." A single enterprise going global often faces unfamiliar markets, rules, and channels. Ningxiang organized over 200 entities to form a "going global" industrial alliance, led by chain leaders and supported by coordinated linkages, delivering solutions for the entire chain together. Small and medium enterprises can ride along with chain leaders, simultaneously lowering thresholds and risks. In the first half of this year, 27 enterprises took their first step in foreign trade, and 26 enterprises doubled their foreign trade volumes.

Shaodong's answer is "empowerment." This August, Shaodong held a specialized training session on foreign trade and cross-border e-commerce, featuring two sections: "AI empowering foreign trade" and "Shaodong products entering the African market." The former taught enterprises how to use AI tools to find clients and conduct overseas social media marketing, while the latter covered export tax rebate risk prevention and cross-border logistics support. The session equipped enterprises with tools to "walk on their own," honing their basic skills for going global.

What the government can do is not only provide financial support, but also help enterprises develop the ability to walk steadily. Only when enterprises shift from "being helped along" to "knowing how to walk on their own" can they go global sustainably and confidently.

Building the full chain: helping enterprises "go far"

In the first half of this year, Geely Automobile entered a peak export period. With a large number of "made in Xiangtan" vehicles to export, how can logistics be ensured? How can customs clearance be sped up?

Xiangtan's approach is "down-to-earth." The Xiangtan Municipal Commerce Bureau, together with the Shaoshan Customs, tailored a "batch declaration + station yard service" customs clearance model for Geely, providing dedicated station yard support in the comprehensive bonded zone to ensure smooth logistics. At the same time, it secured key transport capacity support from Central South Land Port and Hunan-Guangdong-Africa rail-sea intermodal transport. It also facilitated tripartite cooperation among Xiangtan Comprehensive Bonded Zone, Central South Land Port, and JiSu Logistics to jointly build a southern export logistics center.

This combination of "government setting the stage and enterprises performing" gradually unblocked customs clearance and logistics bottlenecks. In the first eight months of this year, Xiangtan's exports reached 17.87 billion CNY, up 107.9%, the highest growth rate in Hunan.

When services reach a deeper level, they inevitably touch on more fundamental issues: infrastructure shortcomings in logistics channels, certification standards, and financial support, which enterprises cannot resolve on their own but are precisely the key to whether going global can be sustained.

In June, Hunan's first integrated service platform for standard certification was officially launched in the Yuhua Block of the China (Hunan) Pilot Free Trade Zone Changsha Area. The platform integrates technical resources from more than 100 certification bodies and integrates functions such as certification policy consultation, guidance on export requirements, and matching enterprises with certification bodies. This establishes a one-stop service model based on the principle of "one standard, one test, one certification, and recognition in multiple countries." This aims to collectively address the market access certification challenges such as EU CE, Middle East SASO, and African SONCAP faced by Hunan enterprises in their global expansion.

Financial "living water" is also flowing to small, medium, and micro foreign trade enterprises. In April, Hunan's first "export flash loan" financing business was successfully implemented. An enterprise belonging to the small, medium, and micro enterprise category in Hunan completed the loan approval process just 30 minutes after submitting materials and received financing support of 94,000 CNY. This financial product relies on the State Administration of Foreign Exchange's cross-border financial service platform, using a "pure credit, fully online" approach. It converts the credit-enhancing function of export credit insurance into a basis for bank lending, addressing the common challenges of "lack of collateral and slow financing" faced by small and micro foreign trade enterprises.

Logistics channels solve the "shipping out" challenge, certification platforms address market access, and financial support keeps businesses running. The combination of these three forms the underlying support for enterprises to "go far."

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

Translator: Yu Jiangjiang

Chinese source: hunan.gov.cn