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Tuesday April 17, 2018

CHINA has announced its decision to support Hainan in developing the island province into a pilot free trade zone, which will involve the gradual unveil-ing of and steady advancement towards making the entire island a free trade port with Chinese characteristics.

Chinese President Xi Jinping made the announcement in a speech at a gathering to commemorate the 30th anniversary of the founding of Hainan Province and the Hainan Special Economic Zone (SEZ) on Friday afternoon.

Hainan will be China’s largest free trade zone, a geographical area char-acterized by an increase in opening-up policies such as special rules on the landing, handling, manufacturing, or re-exporting of goods and is generally not subject to customs duties. It will also be the country’s fi rst free trade port since the founding of the People’s Republic of China in 1949.

“As an isolated island, Hainan can only hope to develop and catch up with the pace of the country’s growth if it is granted the highest degree of opening-up policies,” said Chi Fulin, head of the Hainan-based China Institute for Reform and Development.

Chi, 67, a former offi cial who left Beijing for Hainan in October 1987, was among 100,000 employees across the country to fi nd opportunity and fortune in the burgeoning province in the late 1980s.

Once remote and underdeveloped, Hainan has become one of China’s most open and dynamic regions and a top tourist destination.

Xi’s speech reiterated Hainan’s upper hand as China’s biggest SEZ, its unique geographic location and the best eco-logical environment in the country, as reasons why it’s the ideal grounds for testing reform and opening up.

Xi urged the province to prioritize opening-up, implement more proactive opening-up strategies, and quicken the establishment of new support institu-tions for an open economy.

Exchanges in international energy, shipping, commodities and carbon trading will be established in Hainan. The island will also focus on develop-ing modern service industries such as tourism, the Internet, health care, fi nance and hosting conferences and exhibitions.

Qian Jiannong, senior vice president of Fosun International Limited and inves-tor of the fi rst Atlantis resort in China, has high hopes of Hainan’s future.

“Hainan is the only tropical island province in China. The era of sightsee-ing is past and the era of leisure resorts is coming,” said Qian.

Biggest test ground of reform As the smallest province but biggest

SEZ, Hainan is an ideal test ground of China’s reform and opening up.

In the early 1990s, it boasted China’s fi rst listed private company, and Yangpu Economic Development Zone, the fi rst development zone approved for lease to foreign investors by the Chinese government.

It is also the only province in the coun-try without toll stations on its highways, due to a fee-to-tax reform in 1994.

Since 2001, the town of Boao has become the permanent site of the Annual Conference of the Boao Forum for Asia, the fi rst permanent site for an interna-tional conference in China. In 2005, Hainan was the fi rst province to remove the centuries-old agricultural tax.

The national strategy of building Hainan into an international tourist

Hainan pioneers next phase of China's reform, opening up

destination has put it on the fast track since 2010, attracting investment and infrastructure, such as high-speed rail-ways, hotels, high-end commercial real estate and tourism facilities.

“Aiming for China’s fi rst free trade port, Hainan will start the country’s new round of reform in larger scale and in more extensive areas,” said Fu

Xuanchao, head of the provincial devel-opment and reform commission.

With the rising fl ow of people, goods and capital due to the tax-free policies brought by the free trade zone and port, Hainan is expected to be a pivotal point linking the Chinese mainland with Southeast Asian countries, said Lin Jian, chairman of Hainan Ganghang Holding

Limited Company, a local shipping and logistics enterprise.

“I believe Hainan will be a highly international and modernized island in another 30 years,” said Chi, who served as head of the provincial policy research offi ce in his early years in Hainan, who later became a scholar.

(Xinhua)

An aerial view of the site for the Boao Forum for Asia in Boao, Hainan Province. Xinhua

FIGURES speak for the tremendous growth of tourism in Hainan, the country’s youngest province, which celebrated its 30th birthday on Friday.

In 1988, when Hainan became a prov-ince, it received 1.18 million tourists. In 2011, the fi rst year it was designated by the State as an international tour-ist destination, more than 30 million set foot on the tropical island and the fi gure more than doubled to over 67 million last year.

A pleasant climate, blue seas, golden beaches and lush coconut trees — the traditional landscape attractions of tropical Hainan — are being further brightened by continuous cultivation and the introduction of world-class projects and services that match inter-national standards and meet people’s expectations for happy vacations.

Sanya Atlantis, the third of its kind globally after the Atlantis resorts in Dubai and the Bahamas, is welcoming its fi rst guests late this month, accord-ing to its investor, Fosun Group. It is the latest international hospitality brand that has settled in Hainan, which boasts the largest number of world-class hotels in China.

The landmark one-stop resort com-plex, built at a cost of 11 billion yuan (US$1.75 billion), will offer ample leisure and dining experiences. It is located at Haitang Bay, a world-class resort area

in northeastern Sanya where beauti-ful beaches stretch for more than 10 kilometers.

A show based on the fi lm “Avatar” and produced by Cirque du Soleil, “Toruk: The First Flight,” is being staged in Sanya until May 1. The three-month show expects a total attendance of 300,000.

In early April, the luxury cruise ship MS Europa 2 made a call to the Phoenix Island cruise ship port in Sanya, one of the largest in Asia, which is completing construction of two very large berths, each with a 225,000-ton capacity.

The Europa 2 is one of the 319 cruise ships that have called in at Hainan. It brought in more than 450 European tourists to enjoy Hainan’s tropical landscapes, local cuisines and the cul-ture of the ethnic Li people, the original residents of the island.

“In addition to bringing in top-notch cultural and entertainment shows and sports events, the city, popularly dubbed the oriental Hawaii, is also improving its international recognition by introduc-ing more international brands,” said Fan Mu, director of the Sanya Tourism Development Commission.

As China’s largest special economic zone, the only provincial-level interna-tional tourism island and a pivotal point on the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road, Hainan also boasts many of the country’s

best environmental conditions.Hainan is attracting more invest-

ment from overseas to further develop the huge potential of its tourism sector, which contributed 75 percent of the total revenue of its service industry last year.

“Hainan is determined to continue to upgrade tourism and the supply-side reform of the industry. We will invest 839.3 billion yuan during the 13th Five-Year Plan period (2016-20),” said Sun Ying, director of the Hainan Provincial Tourism Development Commission.

She said priorities will be developing large theme park projects, rainforest theme parks, wetland national parks, new tourism products, cruise tours and scenic routes around the island’s perimeter.

Also emphasized is greater interna-tional tourism marketing, supported by strong incentives for airlines and cruise liners to encourage inbound tourism.

Hainan will make full use of the pref-erential policies granted by the State — including the offshore duty-free policy, opening of air traffi c, visa-free entry and offshore fi nance — to raise the service sector’s level and build the province into a world-class international tourist desti-nation set to attract 80 million tourists in 2020, according to Liu Cigui, Party secretary of Hainan province.

(China Daily)

Tropical island has global appeal