On the morning of February 2, at the first “member channel” of the fourth session of the 13th Provincial Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, Tan Haoran, member of the Provincial Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference and full-time deputy director of the China (Hunan) Pilot Free Trade Zone Work Office, told everyone the story of second-hand construction machinery going overseas.
Changsha, Hunan is the “Capital of Construction Machinery”, but when exporting second-hand construction machinery and equipment, it has encountered difficulties in legal processing, remanufactured product control, and receipt of input invoices.
This “trilemma” is like a huge “barrier lake”, blocking the way for industries to go overseas.
“To this end, we have visited more than a dozen cities at home and abroad, visited hundreds of companies, and combined with the opinions and suggestions of some departments and associations, we took the lead in carrying out the reform of the construction machinery remanufacturing system in the country.” Tan Haoran said.
In 2024, the Provincial Political Consultative Conference brought this reform proposal to the National Two Sessions, and was listed as a key proposal by the National Political Consultative Conference. It received the attention and support of many national ministries and commissions such as the Central Reform Office and the Ministry of Commerce, and promoted the implementation of a series of reform measures.
“We are the first in the country to issue export standards for construction machinery remanufacturing and repair.” Tan Haoran said that with the standards in place, quality will improve and export competitiveness will also increase.
“We have joined forces with the courts, development and reform departments and other departments to carry out innovations in targeted inquiry for judicial disposal by legal agencies.” This initiative reduced the disposal time from 7 months to 5 months, saved costs by 5%, and saved enterprises more than 85 million yuan.
In the construction machinery remanufacturing and maintenance base in the Changsha Area of the China (Hunan) Pilot Free Trade Zone, customs, taxation, public security and other departments have set up special service windows to provide “one-stop” services.
“Thanks to these measures, more than 3 billion yuan of remanufactured equipment has been exported from Hunan to the world in more than two years. What was once a ‘barrier lake’ has become a ‘new channel’ for industries to go overseas,” Tan Haoran said.
He also introduced that the Hunan Pilot Free Trade Zone is “borrowing the port to go to sea” and has joined hands with Dongfang City, Hainan Province to build the country’s first free trade zone and Hong Kong jointly built park – the Xiangqiong Advanced Manufacturing Industrial Park.
Taking advantage of the island-wide customs closure in Hainan, this has become another important platform for Hunan enterprises to go overseas.
Taking Sany as an example, if a second-hand excavator returns to Hong Kong from Southeast Asia and is remanufactured in the Xiangqiong Advanced Manufacturing Industrial Park for export, it can save about 8% of the cost.
“The story of second-hand construction machinery going overseas is a microcosm of the Hunan Pilot Free Trade Zone’s use of ‘institutional innovation’ to solve development problems.” Tan Haoran said that in the more than five years since its approval, the Hunan Pilot Free Trade Zone has produced a total of 109 innovative results, 7 of which have been replicated and promoted nationwide.
“In the next step, I will focus on the innovative development of the entire industry chain of advanced equipment manufacturing, economic and trade with Africa and other fields, conduct in-depth research and consultation, and turn the ‘blocking points’ that restrict development into ‘bright spots’ of institutional innovation and ‘growth points’ of economic development.” Talking about the future focus of his duties, Tan Haoran spoke firmly.
