On September 7, flight HU787, a fully-loaded international cargo charter flight, took off from Paris, France, arriving at Haikou Meilan International Airport 12.5 hours later, marking the establishment of a new direct cargo route for offshore duty-free goods.

That is not all. In recent years, Hainan has optimized its industrial structure and enhanced its development resilience, relying on a series of key industries including tourism, modern services, high-tech, high-efficiency tropical agriculture, seed, deep-sea science & technology, aerospace, offshore duty-free shopping, international medical tourism, and international education.

On July 6, the Hainan Commercial Satellite Launch Site began construction in Wenchang; On September 2,  comprehensive insurance against losses caused by new plant variety rights infringement was put into effect in Sanya; On September 25, China's scientific research ship Tansuo-2, or Explorer 2, returned to Sanya to perform in-situ observation of submarine landslides, after completing its first sea trial. Statistics show that Hainan has invested more than 20 billion yuan (about $2.76 billion) to develop the island into a key center for scientific and technological innovation in the fields of agriculture, marine sciences and aerospace since 2020.

Many breakthroughs have also been made in the tourism industry. In 2021, the province saw a total revenue of 138.43 billion yuan (about $19.11 billion) in the area, a year-on-year increase of 58.6%. The modern service industry is also gathering new momentum — total value in the province's service industry increased by 15.3% year-on-year in 2021.

At the beginning of this year, Hainan rolled out an action plan to improve the overall industrial investment on the island, in which it plans to invest a total of 667.1 billion yuan (about $92.08 billion) into 669 industrial projects in 2022.

Additionally, the China International Consumer Products Expo (CICPE, or Hainan Expo) has been successfully held on the island twice, in 2021 and 2022. Hainan's export-oriented economy has continued to grow at a high speed, with the number of newly established foreign-invested enterprises increasing by 92.6% in 2021. In the first eight months of this year, the value of Hainan's import and export goods trade topped 125.75 billion yuan (about $17.35 billion), up 45% year-on-year. The total value of trade in goods between China and other countries involved in the Belt and Road Initiative rose by 89.9% to 45.57 billion yuan (about $6.29 billion), accounting for 36.2% of Hainan’s total trade volume.

Back in August, the manager of the CNSC Sanya International Duty Free Plaza was in a bind: a batch of imported duty-free goods was stranded at Haikou Customs and could not be delivered to Sanya. These goods had already been ordered online by customers, but were at risk of not being delivered to customers within the guaranteed delivery time. What could be done?

Macun Port Customs was called upon for assistance, and after discussions with the duty-free store, decided to set up a temporary duty-free goods warehouse. 99 duty-free items ordered online were first stored in the Haikou Integrated Free Trade Zone before being shipped directly to customers. As of September 6, Macun Port Customs has processed 5,674 duty-free items with a total market value of 5.92 million yuan (about $820,000) through this innovative mechanism.

Since the implementation of the Law of the People's Republic of China on Hainan Free Trade Port one year ago, more than 150 documents on trade and investment liberalization and facilitation in Hainan have come into effect. At the same time, more than 120 institutional innovations have been launched. This includes unified international ship registration for the whole of Hainan, as well as a new loading process for bonded oil supply ships at Yangpu Port.

On September 17, at a press conference on the institutional innovation achievements of the Hainan Free Trade Port, one particular case raised, entitled "A New Path for Cross-Provincial Collaboration in Transnational Cultivation of Marine Aquatic Germplasm Resources", turned heads. It turned out that Sanya Yazhou Bay Science and Technology City had strengthened domestic cooperation by implementing scientific research and talent exchanges with Shandong Pilot Free Trade Zone, and strengthened international cooperation with Southeast Asia, Japan and South Korea outward by building an "aquaculture seed industry corridor". One species of fish, the Hainan Grouper, has achieved integrated large-scale cultivation in Shandong's Yantai City, with an annual output of more than 10 million fish, while the culture cycle of special aquatic products such as the Plump Grouper has been shortened from 24 months to 8 months. This aquaculture industry ecosystem, which has seen deep integration between the innovation chain and the industrial chain, has offered a new path and fresh insights for the building of China's domestic marine aquaculture industry.

According to statistics, Hainan has published a total of 123 institutional innovation cases. In 2020, the province put forward 60 institutional integration and innovation tasks to be completed in three years, focusing on key areas of free trade port construction. Thus far, 92% of them have been completed.

During Hainan's summer typhoon season, the weather can change at a moment's notice. Stormwater on a project construction site in Haikou’s Jiangdong New Area needed to be discharged into the municipal sewage network through the drains on the adjacent road, but this road has not yet received its final checks. Where could this water go? Just as the project site manager started to panic, along came Li Chang, a ‘project service specialist’.

"A project service specialist is someone who specializes in solving the difficulties faced by businesses." Li Chang said. With his help, the issue of drainage was solved that very day. All 129 projects currently under construction in Jiangdong New Area are assigned project service specialists like Li Chang.

In addition, interest reductions have been given to small, medium and micro enterprises on loans for work resumption, and tailor-made "service packages" have been introduced for key import and export enterprises taking out insurance against losses incurred due to epidemic-related work stoppages. Since September, Hainan has successively issued more than 10 policies to help bail out enterprises. On October 17, a letter of thanks from Tunchang Fuquan Water Supply Company was sent to the government, thanking them for delaying the payment of 160,000 yuan in electricity bills and 110,000 yuan in social insurance in September, which helped reduce the company's expenses by nearly 300,000 yuan.

Since the construction of the Hainan Free Trade Port began, Hainan has always regarded optimizing the business environment as a top priority. Between January and August this year, a total of 610,000 new market entities were registered in Hainan Province. The actual number of market entities in the province presently exceeds 2 million. Meanwhile, investors from 126 countries and regions have established enterprises in the Hainan Free Trade Port, setting the scene for fresh development.