Huaihua, Hunan, May 11, 2025 – The 2nd Hunan (Huaihua) RCEP Economic & Trade Expo commenced on May 9 in Huaihua, drawing over a thousand businesses from China and overseas. The expo serves as a comprehensive platform for trade and collaboration, uniting exhibitors and buyers from the fifteen RCEP member countries and over twenty Chinese provinces, autonomous regions, and municipalities. The opening ceremony saw the signing of twenty-eight projects, representing a total investment of RMB 11.886 billion across sectors like luggage and leather goods, traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), mechanical equipment, and new energy technologies.

The Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) came into effect on January 1, 2022. Hunan is expediting its integration into this major free trade area. From 2022 to 2024, Hunan’s total trade with RCEP member countries reached RMB 574.89 billion, accounting for 30.5% of the province’s total import and export volume. Tariff concessions under RCEP and other free trade agreements resulted in RMB 3.675 billion in duty reductions.

This year’s expo, themed “Sharing Opportunities for a Win-Win Future,” features Thailand as the Guest Country of Honor, Yunnan as the Theme Province, and Yueyang as the Theme City. The agenda includes three key events: the Opening Ceremony and RCEP Economic and Trade Investment Promotion Conference, the Conference on Promoting Coordinated Development of “Dual Corridors” and RCEP Ports, and the Launch Ceremony of “Intangible Cultural Heritage Going Global & Economic Collaboration Initiative” alongside the opening of the Wuxi Intangible Cultural Heritage Theme Park.

The expo’s exhibition area covers 20,000 square meters and is divided into five main zones: the RCEP Country Pavilion, the Dual-Corridor Pavilion, the Huaihua “5+10” Industrial Pavilion, the Hunan Municipal Pavilion, and the Services Trade Pavilion. This arrangement creates a comprehensive display system integrating “International Trade + Dual Corridors + Industrial Matrix + Services Trade.”

During the Expo, nine specialized matchmaking sessions will occur, focusing on areas like luggage and leather goods, TCM, Huaihua’s international land port logistics channel, Yantian international sea-rail intermodal services, Hunan International Trade Group, and a specific session for Australia. Each session will gather over one hundred suppliers and buyers for targeted matchmaking, facilitating access for Huaihua’s key products, such as luggage and TCM, to ASEAN markets via RCEP channels.

Following the opening ceremony, an Economic and Trade Investment Promotion Conference took place, where RCEP member countries, including Cambodia, Malaysia, and Myanmar, presented their trade and investment opportunities. Mr. Wen Weiye, Consul General of the Kingdom of Cambodia in Chongqing, encouraged entrepreneurs and scholars from RCEP member countries to collaborate in strengthening the regional economic partnership. Mr. Khaing Su Linn, Consul General of the Republic of the Union of Myanmar in Nanning, expressed his hope for increased connectivity between Myanmar and Huaihua through the New International Land-Sea Trade Corridor.

“RCEP, being the world’s largest regional free trade agreement, is of significant practical importance for both regional and global economic development through its signed agreements and implementation schedule,” stated Xu Ningning, Chairman of the RCEP Industry Cooperation Committee. He advocated leveraging Hunan and Huaihua’s geographical and industrial strengths and utilizing the Hunan (Huaihua) RCEP Economic & Trade Expo and RCEP Economic and Trade Investment Promotion Conference to showcase Hunan and Huaihua’s achievements and contributions, ultimately establishing Huaihua as a model for international regional open cooperation.

Huaihua, a member of the “13+2” inter-provincial cooperation mechanism under the New International Land-Sea Trade Corridor and Hunan’s only ASEAN cargo aggregation center, has launched seven international rail routes, including cross-border lines to Laos, Vietnam, and Myanmar. At the Expo, Huaihua presented 142 investment projects for 2025, with a total investment scale of RMB 81.697 billion, forming a closed-loop system of “policy guidance – project implementation – industrial upgrading.”

Currently, Huaihua is committed to building an open platform, maximizing its strategic role as an international land port, and accelerating the development of a trade service-oriented national logistics hub and a national composite distribution point city. The city is actively pursuing the establishment of a cross-border e-commerce comprehensive pilot zone and designated regulatory sites while continuously expanding international and domestic logistics corridors. Furthermore, Huaihua is dedicated to optimizing the trade environment, fully aligning with the high standards of RCEP rules, enhancing cross-border services, customs clearance facilitation, and intellectual property protection, and further improving a market-oriented, rule-of-law, and international business environment. (End)

Consumers select spices at the Laos Pavilion

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