Hainan makes headway toward building FTP

Hainan is ramping up efforts to introduce independent island-wide customs clearance operations by the end of 2025, according to Shen Danyang, a member of the Standing Committee of the Hainan Provincial Committee of the Communist Party of China and executive vice-governor of the province.

Shen made the remarks at a media conference on Wednesday afternoon, on the sidelines of the ongoing 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China in Beijing.

According to Shen, all the 25 delegates from the province studied and warmly discussed the report delivered to the congress, expressed full endorsement and support for the report, and felt excited to hear the report mentioning accelerating the development of Hainan free trade port (FTP).

According to Shen, by the year 2025, Hainan will set up special customs supervision areas. The areas will adopt an import and export management mechanism featuring free flow through the "first line" and efficient control at the "second line". The first line refers to the link between the Hainan FTP and countries and regions outside China's customs territory. The "second line" refers to the link between the Hainan FTP and other areas within China's customs territory.

This is the major and top project in the construction of Hainan FTP, Shen said.

The provincial government will devise three types of lists - mainly for projects, tasks and stress tests - to ensure a smooth launch of independent island-wide customs clearance operations, he said.

Meanwhile, the island province will continue to focus on trade and investment liberalization and facilitation, and make new progress in comprehensively deepening reform and opening-up, Shen added.

Hainan became a pilot free trade zone and began to build a free trade port in 2018. Since then, more than 180 policy documents, including zero-tariff lists and preferential tax income policies, have come into effect to widen market access and promote trade facilitation and liberalization.

In the last three years, the actual use of foreign investment and foreign trade in Hainan has gained rapid growth. The former has skyrocketed 80 percent on average annually, and the latter has increased by an average of 50 percent per year.

The past five years have also witnessed Hainan's newly established market entities surpass the total volume of those in previous three decades. The province's newly established market entities amounted to one million in the last two years.

Hainan has stepped up its construction of a modern industrial system. Tourism, modern services, high-tech and high-efficient tropical agriculture have become its four major industries, taking up more than 80 percent of local economic growth.

The tropical island has made solid efforts to enhance the development of Hainan as a national ecological civilization pilot zone. Six landmark projects have been carried out, including building Hainan Tropical Rainforest National Park, encouraging the use of clean energy, establishing zero-carbon demonstration projects, banning non-degradable disposable plastic products, promoting prefabricated construction and improving water governance, Shen said.