This Feb 20, 2020 photo shows robots working at a plant of Sany Heavy Industry in Changsha, central China's Hunan province. (CHEN ZEGUO / XINHUA)

Central China's Hunan province is embracing a tremendous opportunity to become a leading player in the opening-up in the country's inland areas, as a pilot free trade zone for the province was approved on Monday.

The State Council, China's Cabinet, also released plans for other two new FTZs, one in Beijing and one in Anhui province on the same day, and has decided to expand the existing China (Zhejiang) Pilot Free Trade Zone.

The FTZ in Hunan has the strategic goals of "developing a world-class advanced manufacturing cluster, establishing an international investment and trade corridor linking the Yangtze River Economic Belt and the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, and becoming a leading area for in-depth economic and trade cooperation with Africa", according to local officials.

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He Baoxiang, vice-governor of Hunan, said the zone will conduct exploration programs covering innovative platform construction, digital economy, industrial internet, high-end equipment maintenance and intellectual property rights protection and utilization.

It is also expected to seek new growth points for China-Africa cooperation via a series of initiatives, including opening a trade and processing center for non-resource products such as coffee and cocoa from African countries, build a public service platform for China-Africa trade and economic cooperation, and improve financial service capabilities toward Africa, he added.

In recent years, Hunan has increased its inputs to boost its export-oriented economy and gained eye-catching achievements in the sector. Last year, the province set a new record for its foreign trade, with the total import and export volume hitting 434.22 billion yuan (US$64.05 billion), an increase of 41.2 percent year-on-year. The growth rate ranked first nationwide.

In the first half of this year, despite the global economic fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic, Hunan's foreign trade volume surged by 13.4 percent to 208 billion yuan.

The boom in foreign trade and the strong economy have laid a solid foundation for the construction of the Hunan FTZ. The zone will highlight development of high-end equipment manufacturing, non-ferrous metal processing, next-generation information technology, biopharmaceuticals, and agricultural science and technology.

It also aims to boost modern services by focusing on e-commerce, shipping transportation, modern logistics, culture and creativity, conferences and exhibitions.

The Hunan FTZ will cover an area of 119.76 square kilometers and will have parts, in Changsha, Yueyang and Chenzhou.

The Changsha part, covering an area of nearly 80 sq km, will develop a global high-end equipment manufacturing base and a high-end modern service center in inland China. It is designed to serve the in-depth trade and economic cooperation between China and Africa, and inject new growth momentum to the high-quality development of Central China.

A pivotal city in the Belt and Road Initiative, Changsha's imports and exports totaled 122.32 billion yuan from January to July, up 18.8 percent year-on-year, which was 7.7 percentage points higher than the provincial average.

Yueyang, which is home to a 163-km-long stretch of the Yangtze River, boasts the largest international shipping port in inland China. As a result, the Yueyang part, covering an area of nearly 20 sq km, plans to build a comprehensive logistics hub in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River and an inland port economy demonstration zone. From January to July, the foreign trade volume in Yueyang stood at 23.9 billion yuan, up 38.33 percent year-on-year.

The 19.84-sq-km Chenzhou part will promote the transformation and upgrading of processing trade, which refers to the business activity of importing all, or part of the raw and auxiliary materials, and re-exporting the post-processing products.

It will also further improve the local cooperation with Guangdong province and Hong Kong and Macao special administrative regions.

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Contact the writer at haonan@chinadaily.com.cn