[New ideas lead a new journey] Institutional opening promotes the high-quality development of Hainan Free Trade Port
Cctv news(News Network): Building a free trade port with China characteristics in Hainan is an important strategic decision personally planned, deployed and promoted by the Supreme Leader General Secretary. Along the direction of the general secretary, Hainan has accelerated the formation of institutional opening in the past six years, promoting the formation of a free trade port and promoting high-quality development.
Not long ago, more than 30 foreign-funded enterprises organized by the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade came to Hainan and entered the key free trade port parks in Haikou and Sanya to attend promotion meetings, inspect projects, see development, ask about policies and talk about cooperation.
Continue to open wider to the outside world and let more and more foreign-funded enterprises settle in Hainan. From 2018 to 2023, there were 6,534 newly established foreign-funded enterprises in Hainan, with an average annual growth rate of about 65%.
Building a free trade port with China characteristics is a new historical mission entrusted to Hainan by the CPC Central Committee. In April, 2018, in the celebration of the 30th anniversary of Hainan’s establishment as a provincial special economic zone, General Secretary of the Supreme Leader solemnly announced that the CPC Central Committee had decided to support the construction of a free trade pilot zone throughout Hainan and the gradual exploration and steady promotion of the construction of a free trade port with China characteristics.
The direction has been anchored and the blueprint has been expanded since then. After that, the Supreme Leader General Secretary made important instructions on the construction of Hainan Free Trade Port many times. In April 2022, General Secretary of the Supreme Leader visited Hainan again, stressing the need to speed up the construction of a free trade port with China characteristics with world influence, so as to make Hainan a model of China’s reform and opening up in the new era.
Bearing in mind the entrustment of the Supreme Leader General Secretary, Hainan implements a more proactive opening-up strategy.
In the past six years, Hainan’s three "zero tariff" lists, the negative list of foreign investment access and the negative list of cross-border service trade have been implemented and continuously optimized; Policies and systems for trade, investment, cross-border capital flows, people entering and leaving, free and convenient transportation, and safe and orderly data flow have been accelerated. A total of 140 cases of system integration innovation were published in 16 batches, of which 11 cases were replicated and promoted by the State Council to the whole country.
On February 9 this year, 59 countries in Hainan were granted visa-free entry reasons, which expanded from inbound tourism to trade, visits, exhibitions, sports competitions and other fields, making personnel exchanges between relevant countries more free and convenient.
Docking international high standards, Hainan’s institutional opening has steadily expanded. Twenty action measures, such as expanding the scale of trade in goods and innovating the development of trade in services, have been introduced, and the total value of foreign trade imports and exports has maintained double-digit growth for many years. Deepen international cooperation in intellectual property rights, and achieve the "first single" breakthrough in 10 areas such as overseas lawyer practice and teacher qualification.
This year is a crucial year for the closing operation of Hainan Free Trade Port. At present, the main works of 31 customs clearance projects have been basically completed, the construction of 8 ports open to the outside world has been steadily advanced, and 22 of 27 stress testing tasks have been substantially carried out. The construction of Hainan Free Trade Port is moving towards the stage of substantive operation.