General Informaton

Hunan Province, located in the middle and lower reaches of the Changjiang River, covers an area of 211,800 square kilometers. The province is called ¡°Xiang¡± for short , for the Xiang River, the largest in the province , runs across its territory. The population totals about 66 million and there are 13 prefecture-level cities and one Tujia and Miao minority autonomous prefecture. The capital city is Changsha.

Hunan is rich in natural resources. The forest coverage rate reaches 52.7 percent. Particularly there exist five world famous ¡°living plant fossils¡±¡ªCathaya Argyrophylla, metasequoia,, China cypress, ginko and dove tree. The province excels other eight provinces in south China in water energy reserve. Hunan has long been known as the ¡°home of non-ferrous metals and non-metals¡±and a glamorous tourist destination.

The province boasts 141 varieties of over 160 kinds of minerals so far discovered in the world. Hunan is a major and important agriculture province.The major agricultural products include rice, cotton, ramie, edible tea oil, tea , orange and tangerine. As the new century begins, such high and new- tech industries as electronic and IT, new material, biomedical, advanced manufacturing have become key sectors of development.

 
GDP

Hunan achieved significant success after 20 year's economy development in wave of reform and opening to world. The GDP in the year 2002 reached 434 billion yuan with a per capita average of 6565 yuan.

GDP ratio (1st, 2nd, and tertiary industry)
The primary industry, secondary industry and tertiary industry respectively accounts for 19.1%, 38.7% and 42.2%.

Fiscal revenue

The fiscal revenue in 2001 was 36.165 billion yuan (US$4.4 billion), up 10.03 percent over the previous year and exceeding the growth rate of gross national product (GNP) for the first time.

Foreign Trade

Hunan has direct trade relations with 145 countries and regions. It has fostered five major markets, namely the United States, the European Union, Japan and Korea, the ASEAN and Hong Kong and Macao regions. Fifty-one of world¡¯s 500 top transnationals have come to investigate the market and 25 of them have invested in the province. Hunan will further encourage foreign businessmen to invest in agriculture, high and new-tech industries, advanced manufacturing industries, infrastructural facilities, environmental protection and export-oriented industries. It will run central cities located along the Beijing-Guangzhou railway, state and provincial key scientific and technical gardens and zones into open and demonstration zones or show windows of economic development.

Economy

Hunan has made great achievements in economic development.  After entering the new century, Hunan is endeavoring to promote industrialization, industrial operation of agriculture and urbanization. Economic structure has been fairly well readjusted and a number of enterprise groups have sprung up , pushing the economy to develop more rapidly.

Pillar industry

Hunan Province has formed a complete industrial system with pillar industries like metallurgy, machinery, electronics, food, energy, and building materials.

Transportation

Beijing-Guangzhou, Hunan-Guizhou, Zhejiang-Jiangxi, Hunan-Huangxi, Zhicheng-Liuzhou and Shimen-Changsha railway lines run across Hunan's land, the Hunan sections of Luoyang-Zhanjiang and Chongqing-Huaihua railways are now under construction. Beijing-Zhuhai and Shanghai-Ruili expressways run through the province, the total mileage of expressway has amounted to 1000km, 7 national highways and 70 provincial highways connect every corner of the province. There are Changsha Huanghua and Zhangjiajie Hehua International Airports in Hunan territory, and Changde and Yongzhou airports are open for several domestic flights. Huaihua Zhijiang airport is under construction, and it is expected to be put into operation in the end of this year. A dimensional traffic network of water, land and air has been initially shaped.

Editor: Donald