The autumn sky is clear and the air crisp; wild geese fly south in formation. As the 12th Global Forum for Hunan Entrepreneurs prepares to open in Hengyang, the “Wild Goose City” awaits every entrepreneur's homecoming with its deepest affection and warmest embrace.

Wild geese soar across the sky; home is always the starting point from which Hunan entrepreneurs set out.

“Wild geese flying south rest their wings here and go no further.” Hengyang is elegantly known as the Wild Goose City — both the terminus of the geese’ southern migration and the starting point from which millions of Hunan entrepreneurs have chased their dreams. Carrying the trust and expectations of their hometown, Hunan entrepreneurs have striven across the world, creating one business miracle after another.

Today, Hunan entrepreneurs worldwide number more than 4 million, with businesses spanning over 180 countries and regions and assets held outside the province exceeding 4 trillion yuan. They are, without question, business elites and a source of pride for Hunan.

“Those who eat the fruit think of the tree; those who drink from the stream remember its source.” Hunan entrepreneurs have always been a precious resource for Hengyang’s development. Over the past three years, returning entrepreneurs have registered more than 500 new enterprises in Hengyang, with cumulative investment exceeding 120 billion yuan, contributing over 70 percent of the city's newly added industrial enterprises above designated size — becoming a key pillar of Hengyang's high-quality development.

A shared root makes our bond deep and enduring; a shared soul makes our hearts beat as one; a shared dream makes us of one heart and one mind. For Hunan entrepreneurs, Huxiang — Hunan — is a gene inscribed in their blood, and Hengyang is the native soil they never forget. However far you have traveled and however high you have flown, home will always be your most solid backing and warmest harbor.

This place holds your childhood memories, bears the footprints of your growth, and still more, flows with kinship and hometown ties that can never be severed: while others care whether you fly high, your hometown always worries whether you fly tired. We will always regard serving Hunan entrepreneurs as our bounden duty, strengthening support on the home front so that every entrepreneur striving abroad can venture into the world with confidence and pursue development with peace of mind.

Wild geese return home; every corner of this land is fertile ground for Hunan entrepreneurs to build their businesses.

“Wild geese from ten thousand li away routinely return to Hengyang.” If Hunan entrepreneurs venturing across the four seas to build their careers are likened to wild geese winging a thousand miles, then Hengyang is the homing nest that these wanderers dream of and where they alight and take root.

Here, strategic opportunities converge — we look forward to sharing them with you. As a national regional key city and provincial sub-center city, Hengyang recorded average annual GDP growth of 5.83 percent during the 14th Five-Year Plan period (2021–2025), ranking second in the province — demonstrating the responsibility of a major economic city in bearing the weight. At present, anchored to the beautiful blueprint of the “Three Highlands and Four New Missions” strategy, we are advancing in depth the development strategy of “building the city on manufacturing and energizing it through culture and tourism,” ushering in a golden period in which policy dividends are being released in concentrated fashion and the economy is moving steadily upward and renewing itself.

Hengyang has been entrusted with the national pilot program for integrated innovation in industrial metrology and approved as a national pilot city for retail innovation and upgrading, seizing strategic commanding heights for strengthening industry and boosting consumption. The province has issued policies and measures supporting Hengyang in accelerating the building of a provincial sub-center city, tailoring a package of support to our city’s needs. With the Global Forum for Hunan Entrepreneurs about to open, this is an important window for Hengyang to pool strength, gather resources and empower development. We sincerely invite Hunan entrepreneurs to seize these strategic opportunities, ride the express train of Hengyang's development, share in its dividends and achieve mutual benefit.

Here, industrial momentum is gathering — we look forward to building together with you. Hengyang is one of China’s old industrial bases, a national demonstration zone for undertaking industrial transfer, and one of China’s top 100 manufacturing cities, with a deep industrial heritage and a complete industrial system.

Following the laws of industrial development, we have built a modern industrial system with distinct Hengyang characteristics under the framework of “stabilizing five, advancing three and positioning two,” successfully cultivating three national-level industrial clusters — power transmission and transformation equipment, salt-halogen chemicals, and deep processing of copper, lead and zinc. The smart weighing and metrology industry has been listed as the province's 12th key industrial chain; the Runze Embodied Intelligence Industrial Park has become an important new force in the province’s embodied intelligence industry; the Hengsteel supporting industrial park is driving upstream and downstream agglomeration; and strategic cooperation agreements worth tens of billions of yuan — between Hengyang and TBEA on the power transmission and transformation industry, and with China National Nuclear Corporation on nuclear technology applications — are about to be signed.

We look forward to Hunan entrepreneurs deeply participating in Hengyang’s industrial project development and striving to be the “leading geese” of the city’s industrial transformation and upgrading.

Here, openness and vitality are bursting forth — we look forward to prospering together with you. Hengyang is a comprehensive national transport hub and a land-port national logistics hub, with a three-dimensional transport network comprising Nanyue Airport, a 2,000-tonne-class golden waterway on the Xiangjiang River, eight expressways and six railways (four high-speed and two conventional), reaching rivers and seas and connecting to the globe.

We have persisted in expanding space and pooling resources through openness, coordinating our efforts on the combined initiatives of “Hunan entrepreneurs returning home,” “alumni returning to Hunan” and “Hunan expertise empowering Hunan,” and have developed a batch of demonstration projects for the return of Hunan entrepreneurs, such as Chuanshan Time Valley. We actively guide enterprises to go global together, conducting trade with more than 160 countries and regions, and have been listed among “China’s Top 100 Foreign Trade Cities” for consecutive years.

We believe that, supported by Hengyang’s locational and transport advantages and its open platforms, Hunan entrepreneurs will surely seize first-mover opportunities across broader fields and achieve even greater success.

Wild geese fly in formation; home is forever the partner walking alongside Hunan entrepreneurs.

“When a flock of geese soars high, the leading goose guides; where one goose leads, the rest follow.” The logic of Hunan entrepreneur development closely matches that of a wild goose formation: only when government and enterprises share the same heart and direction, resonating in unison, can we create the magnificent scene of a hundred boats racing and a thousand sails setting forth.

“Fish delight most in deep waters; geese know to return where the forest is lush.” We have always regarded serving Hunan entrepreneurs as our core responsibility, and are willing to be your most steadfast companion and most loyal partner — whether you are wanderers striving across the four seas or entrepreneurial elites rooted in native soil; whether you are seasoned business veterans who have cultivated industry for years, or young trailblazers riding the tide. Hengyang always keeps its arms open, quietly awaiting the geese’ return, and with a commitment that “a promise is worth a thousand pieces of gold” and that we will “persist until the work is done,” will escort every dream and bring every undertaking to fruition.

We will carry forward the “Four Commitments” spirit — “We do not come unless summoned, we come whenever summoned, we serve with care, and we do what we say” — continue the “enterprise Service Year” campaign, deepen our “career partner” relationship, and build a community of shared future in which Party committees, governments and enterprises advance together. We will fully establish the “Hengyang, Easy to Get Things Done” service brand, ensuring that Hunan entrepreneurs in Hengyang “get things done, attract the talent they need, earn the profits they seek, and are fully respected.”

“Free at the weekend? Come to Hengyang. Invest in Hengyang, and create new glory.” We warmly welcome Hunan entrepreneurs home, to embark together on a new journey of cooperation and write a new chapter of our era.