Photo by Chen Sihan/Xinhua

The China Customs magazine, published by the General Administration of Customs of China, recently unveiled a ranking of China's Top 100 Foreign Trade Cities for 2020. Hunan's four cities – Yueyang, Changsha, Xiangtan, and Hengyang, made the list.

The rankings of these four cities are: Yueyang ranks 36th; Changsha 37th; Xiangtan 54th; and, Hengyang 71st. These four cities are the main forces of Hunan's foreign trade development, according to the Changsha Customs. In 2020, the foreign trade value of Changsha, Yueyang, Xiangtan, and Hengyang were respectively 235.05 billion yuan, 41.98 billion yuan, 26.14 billion yuan, and 30.24 billion yuan. The total volume of foreign trade of the four cities accounted for 68.4% of the provincial total in the same period.

They've also maintained good performance this year. In the first three quarters, the foreign trade value of Changsha, Yueyang, Xiangtan, and Hengyang reached 199.06 billion yuan, 46.92 billion yuan, 24.11 billion yuan, and 25.3 billion yuan respectively, all posting a double-digit growth over the previous year. The total foreign trade value of the four cities accounted for 69.5% of the provincial total in that period, presenting a year-on-year increase.

Beginning from 2006, the China's Foreign Trade Cities ranking has been regularly released every year. It is based on the "foreign trade competitiveness indicators for China's cities". From the perspectives of foreign trade level, structure, profit, development, and potential, it provides a comprehensive ranking of cities in terms of foreign trade competitiveness, and makes a regular supervision of the foreign trade development trend of China's cities over prefecture level.

Data shows that, 188 of the 297 cities included in the foreign trade competitiveness analysis achieved an increase in imports and exports in 2020. Beyond that, an average growth of 2.1% in imports and exports was seen in these top 100 cities, which was 0.2 percentage point higher than the national growth rate.