CGTN | 14-Aug-2020
China’s opening-up policy has served as a lifeline for Hainan’s economy and a driver of the island province’s rapid development over the past three decades. It is also the primary strategy for building a free trade zone and free trade port.
In the past two years, Hainan has been committed to taking opening-up as a top priority. The resort island offers greater visa-free access and duty-free shopping for tourists and built an air transport network called four-hour and eight-hour flight economic circle as well as implemented a free trade account system. With the big push toward an international tourism and consumption center, consumer goods have become the top commodity imported by Hainan in the past two years, with total imports shooting up 76.8 percent to reach 25.48 billion yuan.
On April 13, 2018, Chinese President Xi Jinping announced the decision to build the whole island of Hainan into a pilot free trade zone at a gathering celebrating the 30th anniversary of the founding of Hainan Province and the Hainan Special Economic Zone. On June 1, Chinese authorities released a master plan for the Hainan free trade port, which aims to build the southern island province into a globally influential high-level free trade port by the middle of the century. (With input from Xinhua)
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