Leadership Insights | Xi's Stories: Hunan-New Practices of Local Governments in the New Era

Taking the lead in promoting the rise of central China and the development of the Yangtze River Economic Belt

A major province in central China, Hunan enjoys a unique location on the transitional zone between the eastern coastal region and the central and western regions and the juncture between the Yangtze River Economic Belt and the coastal open economic belt, where China’s eastern and western economic regions converge. 

In recent years, Hunan has been committed to independent innovation and digital empowerment, with an aim to build an inland opening-up hub. It has constantly made efforts to explore new fields and new race tracks and cultivate new drivers and new advantages, yielding a wide array of tangible results. 

In 2023, Hunan’s GDP hit a new high to more than 5 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 4.6%. 

The added value of its high-tech industries reached 1.1 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 8.9%.

The added value of its advanced manufacturing increased by 6.8% from the previous year, accounting for 51.3% in the entire manufacturing industry. 

Its digital economy grew by 15% year on year, with the total size reaching 1.7 trillion yuan, accounting for 34% of the province’s total GDP. 

The R&D investment across society saw a year-on-year growth rate of 14.2%, ranking fifth around China. 

The province has successively launched 11 landmark projects and continued enhancing the spillover effect as a development highland. 

It has established a future-oriented “4×4” modern industrial system and constantly advanced the industrial development program to foster a number of industries with an output of 1 trillion yuan, a number of enterprises with an output of 100 billion yuan, and a number of projects with an output of 10 billion yuan. 

The added value of its automobile and general equipment manufacturing industries increased by 16.5% and 8.7% year on year, respectively, and the output of its BeiDou-related industries grew by 18.4% compared to the previous year. 

The number of national key laboratories constructed under the leadership of Hunan has reached 11.

The province has introduced 208 high-caliber technological personnel and teams. 

The ten major technological research projects in the province have made 147 breakthroughs in key and core technologies, of which 17 rank first in China. 

(Source: Hunan Municipal Government Work Report 2024)

Facing the global changes unseen in a century, Hunan shoulders the important mission of building an important national advanced manufacturing industry, promoting scientific and technological innovation with core competitiveness, and constructing a highland for inland reform and opening up in the new journey of Chinese modernization. To this end, the province is striving to take the lead in promoting the rise of the central region and the development of the Yangtze River Economic Belt with its pioneering spirit and its commitment to truth and pragmatism.