China to release more favorable policies to boost Hainan FTP construction

Aerial photo taken on May 3, 2021 shows a bridge in Haikou, capital of south China's Hainan Province. (Xinhua/Yang Guanyu)

China will release more favorable policies to boost the construction of the Hainan free trade port (FTP), according to a report by the Xinhua-run Economic Information Daily on Tuesday.

The Ministry of Commerce (MOC) will work with relevant departments and Hainan government to further optimize the regulatory policy environment for goods imports and exports in designated areas of the Hainan FTP, and improve regulations affecting service trade liberalization and facilitation in Hainan, Gao Feng, spokesperson with the MOC told the Economic Information Daily at a press conference.

In terms of investment, the MOC will implement existing opening-up measures and actively guide the regional headquarters of multinational companies to settle in the southern island province, added Gao.

Notable progress has been made since China released a master plan in last June to build Hainan into a globally influential and high-level free trade port by the middle of the century.

According to Gao, China has rolled out 28 policies and measures to liberalize and facilitate trade in goods and services at the Hainan FTP. It has also unveiled 22 special measures to widen market access in sectors, including finance, culture, and medical care.

With the deepening of reform and opening-up and implementation of supporting policies, Hainan has yielded initial development outcomes. Data showed that the number of newly established enterprises in Hainan increased 113.7 percent last year, and the number of talents introduced by the resort province surged 177 percent to 122,000.

In 2020, Hainan's foreign capital in actual use rose 100 percent to 3.03 billion U.S. dollars, with the number of new foreign-invested enterprises reaching 1,005, up 197.3 percent year on year.

Official data also showed that offshore duty-free sales in the province exceeded 32 billion yuan in 2020 and the average daily duty-free sales hit 120 million yuan by the end of 2020, after the annual tax-free shopping quota was lifted from 30,000 yuan to 100,000 yuan per person on July 1, 2020.

Hainan's economy kicked off a good start in the first quarter. Its GDP reached 139.60 billion yuan, showing a year-on-year increase of 19.8 percent.