An aerial drone photo shows the construction site of key projects of the Central Business District in Sanya, south China's Hainan Province, Feb. 16, 2025. (Xinhua/Zhao Yingquan)
South China's Hainan Province is intensifying efforts to build itself into a free trade port (FTP), aiming to establish independent customs operations by the end of 2025, Hainan's Governor Liu Xiaoming said on Tuesday, adding that following the independent operations, the FTP will further enhance trade and investment liberalization and facilitation with global partners.
Liu made the remarks at a sub-forum of the Boao Forum for Asia (BFA) Annual Conference 2025, which is being held from Tuesday to Friday, under the theme of "Asia in the changing World: Towards a shared Future."
Liu said that the province is striving to create a market-oriented, law-based, and internationalized first-class business environment, with the aim of promoting the implementation of policies including zero tariffs, and low corporate and individual income tax rates.
The Hainan FTP stands ready to work with other free trade ports and zones to reduce barriers to trade, investment, personnel, capital, data and other factor flows, strengthen interconnectivity in key areas such as transportation, logistics, information, communications and energy, and innovate green and low-carbon modes of production and life, Liu said.
The mission of free trade zones and ports is to break down barriers, not to build high walls; to create opportunities, not to monopolize the dividends. The Hainan FTP is willing to work with global partners to alleviate the difficulties of development through openness, gather the momentum of innovation through cooperation, and seek a win-win situation, so as to inject more certainty into global free trade, the governor noted.
Some participants in the sub-forum told the Global Times that in the face of rising unilateralism and protectionism in the external environment, the building of the Hainan FTP represents a vivid example of China's firm commitment to opening-up and economic globalization, which will further strengthen regional cooperation and beyond, bringing development dividends to the world.
Chi Fulin, head of the Hainan-based China Institute for Reform and Development, told the Global Times on the sidelines of the forum that a free trade port is the world's most open form of economic zone, and the Hainan FTP makes it a leader, promoter and facilitator of free trade.
The Hainan FTP has become a new frontier of China's institutional opening-up. The independent customs operations will strengthen its role of promoting regional integration as a key hub for economic and trade cooperation between China and other economies, including ASEAN and the Middle East, Chi noted.
In 2024, Yangpu Port in Hainan and the Abu Dhabi Port signed a memorandum of understanding to strengthen cooperation in areas such as port construction, shipping services and green energy. This collaboration aims to enhance port capacity and efficiency, expand the ports' service coverage, and jointly explore markets in China and the United Arab Emirates, according to the Hainan government.
Pei Sai Fan, a visiting professor at National University of Singapore, noted great cooperation potential in the financial field. "Hainan can utilize policy support in digital technology including artificial intelligence and blockchain to create a new blue ocean of digital finance," Pei told the Global Times, adding that China's financial opening-up push in areas such as the free flow of data has brought many opportunities between China and Singapore, which will also further promote digital financial connectivity.
The construction of the Hainan FTP will also ensure the country's security in supply chains, Zhao Jinping, vice president of the China Association of Trade in Services, told the Global Times on Tuesday.
"Supply chain security, particularly in the context of escalating geopolitical tension, has become a top priority for nations worldwide. To ensure supply chain resilience, countries have adopted divergent policy approaches. The US has pursued a strategy centered on ideological considerations, rallying allies to reshape industrial chains while suppressing China's development. This approach, characterized by exclusive bloc-building and artificial industrial decoupling, fundamentally contravenes the principles of the market economy and globalization," Zhao noted.
In contrast, China's approach emphasizes multilateral cooperation and inclusive partnership expansion, with key initiatives including developing an advanced global free trade network through bilateral and multilateral agreements. "This cooperative paradigm enables enterprises to securely participate in the international division of labor while maintaining supply chain stability, demonstrating China's commitment to addressing global challenges through shared development rather than zero-sum competition," Zhao said.
