Hainan forges ahead as China's largest FTZ

Local authorities making great progress in development, reform and opening-up

Hainan has made solid progress in deepening reform and opening-up since the central government decided in April 2018 to turn the entire Hainan Island into the country's largest free trade zone, according to local authorities.

Official statistics of the first half of this year showed that Hainan achieved encouraging results in high-quality development, with the added value of its service industry reaching 155.59 billion yuan ($21.8 billion), an increase of 6.5 percent year-on-year. The sector accounted for 58.4 percent of the local GDP, which is 3.5 percentage points higher than the national average.

"Hainan's economic structure is being further optimized and the foundation for high-quality growth is becoming more soundly based. Investment in 12 key industries accounted for 77.1 percent of the fixed-asset investment in the first half of this year," said Fu Xuanchao, director of the Hainan Provincial Development and Reform Commission.

From last November to September this year, Hainan launched 664 projects with a total investment of 309.8 billion yuan involving quality investors at home and abroad. About 70 percent of these projects are industrial projects covering such fields as tourism, modern services, high-tech industries and high-efficiency tropical agriculture, according to the provincial government.

For instance, the Marine Information Industry Base, which was established by the China Electronics Technology Group in 2016 in the Lingshui Li autonomous county, recently deployed advanced floating platforms, reef platforms and underwater facilities for collecting marine information, and launched the nation's first integrated electronic testing ship.

These high-tech developments are regarded by the provincial authorities as a strong accelerator to drive the local marine economy, which boasts vast sea areas and enjoys rich ocean resources.

On Sept 12, the PK Joint Innovation and Ecosystem Conference held in Hainan Resort Software Community established an alliance of companies to support the construction of China's first PK eco-village in Hainan.

The "PK system" refers to the technological system based on the Phytium central processing unit and Kylin operating systems, the advanced basic computer hardware and software structure developed in China.

"Building the PK Eco-Village in Hainan will bring together a number of institutions and enterprises to seize the opportunities for innovation and create a new base for the network security industry," said Rui Xiaowu, chairman of China Electronics Corp.

The local authorities have made high-quality growth a goal in developing the Hainan pilot free trade zone, the country's largest FTZ in area, according to Liu Cigui, Party secretary of Hainan.

Liu said Hainan is implementing the new development concept to build a modern economic system, promote high-quality growth, deepen reform and expand opening-up in the new era.

He added Hainan is carrying out a more proactive opening-up strategy by introducing more than 40 institutional innovation measures to upgrade government administration and further open up such sectors as tourism, finance, investment, risk control and cultural exchanges, aiming to create a sound business environment for international investors.

As a result, the time for overall customs clearance at Hainan's ports has been cut to 44.94 hours this year, 64.6 percent shorter than that in 2017. In the first six months this year, 163 new foreign-funded enterprises were set up in Hainan, a 254 percent growth over the same period last year, according to official statistics.

In the past year, a large number of major international and domestic companies such as PricewaterhouseCoopers, Ernst & Young, Temasek, General Electric, Qualcomm, Alibaba, Tencent and China Tourism Group have established businesses in Hainan, with 30 of them having established their regional or sectional headquarters in the province.

Shen Xiaoming, governor of Hainan, said the province is also striving to move forward on a more eco-friendly growth path.

"Hainan always regards a good ecological environment as its biggest fortune and strongest advantage. All new projects cannot put the environment at risk. We must take the most stringent measures to ensure that the ecosystem can only be better," said the governor.

Joint government and social efforts safeguarding the ecological environment of the tropical island province have continued, ensuring 99.7 percent of the days in a year remain fine in air quality and 92.3 percent of its surface water and soil environment remained in excellent quality in recent years.