Since the beginning of this year, Anhui Province has used the construction and effective use of open platforms as a lever to advance opening-up efficiently. It has promoted Anhui companies' joint efforts to go overseas, accelerated the landing of foreign-funded projects, and forged a new outward-opening path of mutually beneficial development.

Recently another important international economic and trade exchange event was held in Hefei. This matchmaking conference, aimed specifically at Japanese government and corporate participants, attracted senior executives from 28 Japanese firms and institutions. At the meeting they not only learned about Anhui's investment environment and leading industries, but also held talks with Anhui companies, investment-promotion departments and representatives of open parks, reaching a series of cooperation intentions.

A representative of one Japanese firm said, “Anhui has a large pool of talent, very good logistics and infrastructure, and strong government support for foreign investment. Over the past few years our output has increased by 1.5 times. We hope to seize this opportunity to deepen domestic cooperation in new energy vehicles.”

Since the start of the year, the "Haike Roundtable," an initiative tailored to overseas investors, has held 13 high‑level economic and trade events and has become a regularized platform for Anhui to connect with and serve foreign investors, providing strong support for the province’s investment promotion.

As Anhui continues to strengthen policy guidance and platform support, not only are more high‑quality inbound projects being attracted, but the willingness of Anhui enterprises to expand overseas is steadily rising. To help companies with limited overseas experience go global more effectively, the Anhui Provincial Department of Commerce has enhanced platform services, drawing up and issuing a guidance catalogue of overseas exhibitions and staging 15 Anhui export‑oriented industry themed "exhibitions within exhibitions" abroad, together with supporting policies, to provide enterprises with efficient, reliable international expansion platforms.

By forming an Anhui‑style enterprises international economic and trade cooperation alliance and leveraging the overseas resources of leading firms such as Chery Holding and China Railway No.4 Engineering Group, the province has established 33 overseas business service outlets in key regions including ASEAN, the Middle East, Africa and Europe. These outlets provide one‑stop services such as information, trade matchmaking and channel development, creating platforms for domestic and international exchange.

Driven by these open platforms, in the first half of this year, Anhui’s actual outbound investment reached US$1.56 billion, up 9.8% — 10.3 percentage points higher than the national average — ranking ninth nationwide and first in Central China. There were 31 new outbound investment projects each over US$10 million, with advantageous sectors such as automobiles, cement and lithium batteries accounting for US$960 million, 61.5% of the province’s total outbound investment. Actual utilized foreign investment reached RMB 12.05 billion, up 3.8% year‑on‑year. In the first seven months, Anhui’s goods trade (imports and exports) totaled RMB 543.41 billion, up 14.1% year‑on‑year, maintaining the top position in Central China for trade volume and ranking sixth nationwide for growth.

Source: Anhui News