English English

By Dai Qi

The Chinese government unveiled its plan on Tuesday to turn the whole of Hainan Island into a pilot free trade zone led by tourism, service and hi-tech industries.

According to the plan, special customs supervision areas will be set up to promote institutional innovation on facilitation of trade and investment. The area will focus on international investment trade, bonded logistics and bonded repairs.

Isolated areas supervised by customs will also be built in Hainan's Sanya in a bid to introduce and transit animal and plant species resources worldwide.

China will adopt the mechanism of negative list and Pre-Establishment National Treatment, which treats foreign and local investment equally when introducing foreign investment into Hainan Province.

The plan said China would open up more extensively modern agriculture, high and new technology and modern service industries. 

Key areas like seed, medical care, education, tourism, telecommunication, Internet, culture, finance, aviation, marine economy and new energy vehicle manufacturing, are expected to embrace more policies to accelerate their opening up.

Meanwhile, a negative list mechanism will also be established in cross-border service trade. 

A service export base is expected to be built in Hainan, and more supportive policies will be endowed. 

The Chinese government will support Hainan to set up a cross-border e-commerce comprehensive pilot zone and improve its customs supervision, finance and logistics systems.

The plan also said the development and utilization of the land and sea area must strictly abide by national laws and regulations, as well as the integrated plan of Hainan Province, to build an ecologically civilized Hainan pilot free trade zone.