What drives a province's economic development? For Hunan, the answer is clear: the construction of the "Three High Grounds." These refer to the national important advanced manufacturing high ground, the technological innovation high ground with core competitiveness, and the inland region reform and opening-up high ground. What makes an area a "high ground"? It relies on a series of landmark projects.

In the first half of this year, Hunan conducted its first major dynamic adjustment to the "Three High Grounds" landmark projects. Months have passed since then—how is the construction of these projects progressing? On August 27th, Hunan Provincial Party Secretary Shen Xiaoming chaired a meeting of the Provincial Party Committee Standing Committee to hear reports on the advancement of the "Three High Grounds" landmark projects.

Progress of the 13 Landmark Projects

After the adjustment, there are now 13 "Three High Grounds" landmark projects in total. Let's examine each one.

For the national important advanced manufacturing high ground, three landmark projects have been deployed. The first is cultivating billion-yuan-level enterprises. Currently, Hunan has 5 such enterprises. In the first seven months, the province's 15 enterprises targeted for billion-yuan cultivation achieved revenue of 756.352 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 2.2%. Hunan's goal is to cultivate 8 enterprises with revenue exceeding 100 billion yuan, 60 enterprises exceeding 10 billion yuan, and 400 enterprises exceeding 1 billion yuan by 2028.

The second is building advanced manufacturing industry clusters. In the first half of the year, Hunan's 5 national-level and 6 provincial-level advanced manufacturing clusters achieved an output value of 979.5 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 5%. Clusters such as new energy materials and ultra-high voltage transmission equipment saw growth rates exceeding 10%.

The third is building a pilot zone for large-scale application of BeiDou navigation. Since 2021, Hunan has successfully hosted four international summits on large-scale BeiDou application. The fifth summit is scheduled to be held in Zhuzhou from September 15-16 this year. Among the 39 national pilot cities for large-scale BeiDou application released by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, Zhuzhou ranks firmly first in comprehensive assessment.

For the technological innovation high ground with core competitiveness, six landmark projects have been deployed. The first is building a "1+N" national laboratory system. The "1" (core national laboratory) is the central element, while "N" encompasses various fields—seed industry, energy, aviation—anything that meets Hunan's needs is welcome. In April this year, the strategic cooperation agreement between the Hunan Provincial People's Government and Yazhou Bay National Laboratory was officially implemented, enabling collaborative strategic research on seed industry technology. The Hunan base of Huairou Laboratory has also completed site selection, which is expected to help Hunan achieve technological breakthroughs in key directions such as renewable energy, hydrogen energy, energy storage, and new power systems.

The second is building Xiangjiang Science City. In the first half of the year, 7 new projects were signed in Xiangjiang Science City, with contracted investment of nearly 1.3 billion yuan. The "Five Major Facilities" of Xiangjiang Science City (Trading Exhibition Center, Technology Service Center, Science Exchange Center, Xiangjiang Launch Port, and Xiangjiang Innovation Port) can be fully operational within this year.

The third is implementing the "4+4 Science and Technology Innovation Project," which involves the construction of "Four Major Laboratories" and "Four Major Scientific Research Facilities." Let's focus on the 2 newly added major scientific research facilities this year. Among them, the National Traditional Chinese Medicine Germplasm Resource Bank has initiated the collection of 10,000 germplasm resources. The construction of the experimental building for the underwater electro-acoustic conversion comprehensive test field major scientific research facility has commenced.

The fourth is building Changsha as a global R&D hub city. In the first half of the year, Changsha added 182 new R&D institutions, bringing the total to 4,490. The Shanghai Jiao Tong University Hunan Advanced Research Institute has been registered in Xiangjiang Science City. Changsha has also strengthened international exchanges and cooperation with institutions such as science and technology organizations in Andean countries and Singapore's Agency for Science, Technology and Research.

The fifth is promoting the project of technology empowering cultural industry innovation. Hunan has broken through multiple core technologies for high-definition and ultra-high-definition television development, achieving an 80% improvement in production efficiency and a 60% reduction in costs, which have been applied to several major programs.

The sixth is implementing the "AI+" action. On June 30th, the Hunan Province computing power scheduling platform went online for trial operation, marking a new stage in Hunan's computing power infrastructure development. Hunan has cumulatively cultivated 23 provincial-level large models and released 39 provincial-level intelligent terminal products.

For the inland region reform and opening-up high ground, four landmark projects have been deployed. The first is advancing the comprehensive reform pilot for market-oriented allocation of factors in the Changsha-Zhuzhou-Xiangtan region. Integration of these three cities is leading with the land market breakthrough—cross-regional land listing transactions among the three cities have been initiated. In June this year, a commercial-residential plot in Xiangtan Economic Development Zone was listed on Changsha's land resources online trading system for sale, opening bidding channels to real estate enterprises across the province and the country. This is Hunan's first cross-city land supply transaction. Talent recognition has also achieved "synchronized resonance" among the three cities, with the first batch of 383 high-level talents jointly recognized through mutual recognition, and consistent service standards and benefits in finance, housing fund, culture and sports, and transportation.

The second is deepening the "machine-managed bidding" reform. As of the end of June, 7,116 projects across the province had published bidding announcements through "machine-managed bidding," with private enterprises achieving an 81.72% winning rate.

The third is promoting the innovative development of the China-Africa Economic and Trade Expo. Particularly noteworthy is the new-type barter trade with Africa, which ranks first nationally in scale. Bank of Changsha has partnered with South Africa's ABSA Bank to successfully establish a channel for converting South African rand and Chinese yuan.

The fourth is aligning and integrating with major national strategies. After the adjustment, Hunan is focusing on advancing key tasks including promoting the strategy of the rise of central China and the Yangtze River Economic Belt development, aligning with the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area and the Yangtze River Delta integration, promoting coordinated development of Hunan-Hainan free trade zones and ports, building the Changsha-Yueyang airport economic zone, and establishing a high ground for cooperation with Laos, concentrating efforts to break through and thereby creating a new pattern for Hunan's inland opening-up. These key tasks have all shown new progress this year. The Xiang-Qiong Advanced Manufacturing Co-construction Industrial Park, the nation's first cooperative park jointly built by a free trade pilot zone and a free trade port, has cumulatively introduced 48 projects since its launch in May 2023, with agreed investment of 18.82 billion yuan.

Yueyang Sanhe Airport's port temporary opening has been approved, and all-cargo aircraft routes have successfully completed their maiden flights. In the first seven months, shipment volumes of China-Europe freight trains, Hunan-Guangdong-Africa rail-sea intermodal trains, and Huaihua-ASEAN trains increased by 48.8%, 35.3%, and 16.3% year-on-year respectively.

Where to Start Going Forward

With the 13 landmark projects laid out, some areas are already showing tangible changes, while others are still in the "accelerating from start" phase. Industrial transformation and economic quality improvement depend on a batch of projects, enterprises, and technologies that can truly deliver. This is the significance of landmark projects. Understanding this is not difficult—the challenge lies in execution.

The first thing is learning to "make trade-offs." Hunan is not a resource-rich province; financial resources, land, and policy space are all limited. There has been an inertia in development—feeling that no direction should be dropped, and every project deserves support. When resources are spread too thin, looking back, there's little that truly stands out. The purpose of the dynamic adjustment is essentially Hunan forcing itself to make choices: what must be protected, what can be postponed, and what should be abandoned altogether. This choice is difficult but necessary. Wanting everything ultimately means getting nothing.

How to choose? The standard is simple—whether it can generate productivity. Will investing in this project drive a group of enterprises to rise? Can this technological breakthrough be turned into products that sell? Can this platform attract truly talented people to stay? If the answer is ambiguous, set it aside for now. But once confirmed, there's no room for hesitation. Each of the 13 landmark projects will encounter difficulties, bottlenecks, and pain points during implementation—some stuck in approval processes, some in funding, some in coordination. If we detour around problems and shelve conflicts, the word "landmark" becomes empty. We must focus tightly on problems and take responsibility to the end.

The second thing is learning to "join forces." Enterprises need to cooperate with each other. One of the landmark projects is building advanced manufacturing industry clusters. A cluster isn't just about corralling enterprises in the same area. A true cluster means that what one enterprise lacks, another can supply; when one needs to upgrade, others benefit along with it. This relies on market forces, but the government can build platforms to facilitate joint procurement, shared R&D, and centralized logistics, helping enterprises save real money.

Between departments, the phenomenon of "each playing its own tune" must be broken. Some policies have good intentions when introduced, but fail at the grassroots level due to inconsistent standards and poor information flow. When such situations accumulate, enterprises lose heart. Coordination isn't about holding meetings and making statements—it's about truly connecting planning compilation, project approval, fund allocation, and performance evaluation. Regional coordination requires breaking down barriers even more. Changsha-Zhuzhou-Xiangtan is Hunan's "locomotive," but no matter how fast the locomotive runs, if the cars behind are disconnected, overall speed won't increase. Cross-city land transactions and mutual talent recognition have already broken new ground in the region; the next step is to move toward more factors and a broader scope. Other cities and prefectures cannot simply wait for "spillover effects"—finding their own positioning and actively integrating is more practical than anything else.

The third thing is learning to "look further ahead." Immediate matters must be handled well, but only handling immediate matters means forever lagging behind others. Recently, the provincial party committee and government have conducted multiple research visits on future industries and listened to expert recommendations. Laying out future industries in advance can inject new momentum into landmark projects. Artificial intelligence, low-altitude economy, hydrogen energy and energy storage—these tracks are still in their "starting phase," and whoever gets ahead now secures their position. The old foundations should not be abandoned, but "old trees must sprout new branches"—for example, construction machinery plus intelligent driving, agricultural machinery plus BeiDou navigation. Grafting new technologies onto traditional industries often yields results more easily than starting from scratch.

The 13 landmark projects are the "military pledge" Hunan has set for itself while climbing uphill. Whether they stand firm is determined not on paper, but on construction sites, in production lines, and in the actual performance of every enterprise. Only then can the "Three High Grounds" truly be established, and the foundation of Hunan's development be strengthened.

This article explores the strategic direction and implementation progress of Hunan's key development projects, with original reporting by Huang Tingting.