Hunan's actual foreign direct investment (FDI) increased by 1.01% to 170 million USD this January, achieving a good start in 2025, data from the Ministry of Commerce showed.

Yihai Kerry Group is a Chinese subsidiary of Singaporean Wilmar International Limited, one of the Fortune Global 500 enterprises. In 2020, the group favored the advantages of Hunan's agricultural industry, and decided to invest 3 billion CNY to build a grain, oil, and food processing base in the Tongguan Industrial Park, adjacent to the Tongguan Port, covering a designated area of 340 mu (22.67 ha.). In January this year, the first phase of the base project went into full production, which can produce nearly 1 million tonnes of rice, flour, and rice-bran oil annually.

CP Group is the first foreign-funded agricultural enterprise to enter Hunan Province. After nearly 40 years of development, its investments in Hunan cover planting, feed, breeding, food processing, retailing and other fields. The group has set up 23 companies in Hunan, realizing an annual feed production capacity of more than 1 million tonnes, an annual output of 1 million hogs, and an annual sales revenue of nearly 10 billion CNY.

According to data from the Department of Commerce of Hunan Province, in January this year, 15 newly-registered enterprises were established by returning Hunan-based entrepreneurs, and a cumulative investment of 25.3 billion CNY has been paid in by entrepreneurs returning to their hometowns. There were 39 newly-introduced major projects, worth a total investment of 37 billion CNY. Contracts were signed with four enterprises of the Fortune Global 500 enterprises, top 500 Chinese enterprises, and top 500 Chinese private enterprises to invest in four projects, with a total investment of 2.3 billion CNY.