Speech at the Press Release on the Construction of Hainan Free Trade Port

(April 12, 2021)

Shen Xiaoming, Secretary of the CPC Hainan Provincial Committee

Chairman of the Standing Committee of Hainan Provincial People's Congress

Ladies and gentlemen, dear friends:

Good morning! First of all, I would like to take this opportunity to express my sincere gratitude to people from all sectors of society for your interest in and support for comprehensively deepening reform and opening up of Hainan and the construction of Hainan Free Trade Port.

At the gathering celebrating the 30th anniversary of Hainan as a province and a Special Economic Zone on April 13, 2018, General Secretary Xi Jinping delivered an important speech, giving Hainan a new historic mission of comprehensively deepening reform and opening up, and supporting Hainan to gradually explore and steadily push forward the construction of a free trade port with Chinese characteristics. On June 1, 2020, the Overall Plan for the Construction of Hainan Free Trade Port was officially released. Over the past three years, led by the CPC Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core and supported by national ministries, other provinces and all sectors of the society, we have thoroughly implemented the spirit of the important speeches and instructions of General Secretary Xi Jinping on Hainan's work, and the reform and opening up in Hainan has experienced great changes in the following ten aspects.

First, the commitment to achievement and entrepreneurship has surged to an all-time high across the province. We have vigorously promoted the pioneering and hardworking spirit, focusing on one central theme per year to tackle a series of difficult problems. We have carried out campaigns such as "everyone’s contribution counts in speeding up the construction of Hainan Free Trade Port", encouraging cadres to take responsibility to propel the smooth start and vigorous development of the construction of Hainan Free Trade Port.

Second, the quality of economic development has significantly improved. By strengthening internal strength, changing the driving force for economic development, and attracting external investment, we have promoted economic transformation and continuously optimized the industrial structure. In terms of strengthening internal strength, we have resolutely reduced the dependence of our economy on real estate, with the proportion of industry investment increasing from less than 40% to over 60%. In terms of the new drivers for economic growth, we have shifted the driving force from relying mainly on investment, especially investment in real estate and fixed assets, to the combined force of consumption and investment. In terms of attracting external investment, we have mainly focused on attracting different kinds of market players in line with the industrial development orientation to participate in the construction of Hainan Free Trade Port. These efforts have been rewarded with a steady growth in our GDP and tax revenue in spite of the dual pressures of real estate regulation and the Covid-19 pandemic, and our main economic indicators have outperformed the national average. In the first year of the construction of Hainan FTP, we have doubled our growth in four fields, namely, newly established enterprises, actual utilization of foreign capital, introduction of talents and offshore duty-free shopping.

Third, market players are giving positive responses. We have vigorously promoted the implementation of core policies, such as the one negative and three positive lists for zero tariff treatment to imported goods and the “three lists” for easing market access. As a result, the past three years have witnessed an increase of 763,000 new market entities, exceeding the sum of the past 30 years. The utilized foreign investment has doubled for three consecutive years, with the accumulated foreign capital investment reaching 5.27 billion US dollars, which is more than half of the total paid-in foreign capital in the past 30 years. Over the past three years, the operating income of central enterprises and their subsidiaries based in Hainan has increased over 20 times. Especially since the release of the Overall Plan, the number of newly established enterprises has increased by 113.7%.

Fourth, the inflow of talents is accelerating. With the strong support of the Organization Department of the CPC Central Committee, central ministries and commissions as well as other provinces, we have introduced 285 outstanding cadres to Hainan in three batches to work on temporary posts, and dispatched 400 cadres in four batches to study in the relevant central government agencies and developed provinces. We have attracted a total of 233,000 talents to Hainan in the past three years, representing an increase of 675%. Among them, over 50% have been introduced within less than a year since the release of the Overall Plan, and the initial goal of the Action Plan for Attracting One Million Talents to Settle Down in Hainan has been successfully achieved. We have set up a "single window" for talent service, published the measures for regulating overseas practicing professionals in Hainan FTP, issued measures and catalogues for the administration of vocational qualification examinations, implemented preferential policies for corporate and personal income tax, and established a salary-based talent evaluation system, thus the talent development environment has been significantly optimized.

Fifth, the ecological environment keeps improving. The ecological environment of Hainan is a precious wealth of both Hainan people and the people of the whole country. We have put substantive efforts in promoting the development of Hainan as a national ecological conservation pilot zone. The tropical rainforest national park system has been launched and approved by the competent national authority; the number of new energy vehicles now accounts for 4.2% of the total number of vehicles, 1.3 times higher than the national average; "plastic ban" has been rolled out comprehensively; the building area of prefabricated buildings has doubled for three consecutive years; "zero landfill" of domestic garbage in the whole island had been realized by the end of last year; the proportion of days with good air quality reached 99.5%; the average concentration of PM2.5 has dropped to 13 μ g/m3; and the ecological quality of rivers, lakes, reservoirs and offshore waters remains at the top in China.

Sixth, business environment is increasingly optimized. We are fully aware of the vital importance of business environment for the construction of Hainan Free Trade Port. Focusing on integrated system innovation, we have published 116 cases of system innovation in 12 batches. We have strengthened “Hainan single window service” for international trade to reduce the time needed for review and approval by 70% to 80%. Our minimalist examination and approval system has been warmly received by various market entities.

Seventh, a modern industrial structure is taking shape. We have accelerated the establishment of a "3+1" modern industry system supported by tourism, modern services, high-tech industries and high-efficiency tropical agriculture. In terms of tourism and modern services, we have made the best use of the duty-free shopping policy in order to attract overseas high-end shopping as well as medical care and education consumptions. We’ll host the first China International Consumer Products Expo on the forthcoming May 7 to 10. In terms of high-tech industries, we have focused on the development of the three future industries of seed breeding, deep-sea technology and aerospace technology. By far, the construction of Nanfan Seed Breeding Silicon Valley has made substantial progress; the deep-sea technology project represented by the manned submersible Fendouzhe, or Striver, has successfully landed in Yazhou Bay Science and Technology City; and "Tianwen No.1" and "Chang' e No.5" have been launched in Wenchang International Aerospace City. The number of high-tech enterprises has increased by 273% and the revenue of Internet industry has risen by 192%, which shows that the supporting role of high-tech industries has been significantly enhanced. In terms of high-efficiency tropical agriculture, while vigorously developing rubber, betel nut and coconut plantations, we have also introduced a number of new varieties of tropical fruits from other countries and encouraged traditional ocean fishery to diversify into deep-sea fish farming, factory-based breeding and recreational fishery to further optimize the agro-industrial structure.

Eighth, we have conducted effective risk prevention and control to underpin further opening up.  Our social management information platform as a whole has been put into operation, bolstering offshore, coastal and inland control networks through non-stop monitoring over the flow of people, cargo and capital. We have formulated and implemented the "Provisional Regulations on Anti-smuggling in Hainan Province" and struck severe blows on various duty-free shopping arbitrage behaviours.

Ninth, the people's sense of gain has steadily increased. We have successfully won the fight against poverty, with all of 600 poverty-stricken villages and all the five poverty-stricken counties officially removed from the poverty list, and 650,000 recorded poor people all lifted out of poverty. We have accelerated the construction of affordable commercial housing to meet the needs of local residents and imported talents, and effectively stabilized market price for meat, vegetables and other commodities. We have introduced high-quality educational resources to establish 102 cooperative schools and 49 high-quality hospitals, which can basically provide easily accessible education for all children of school age and medical service for all residents on the island.

Tenth, the Hainan Free Trade Port Law is to be adopted soon. We have actively cooperated with the National People’s Congress and rendered full support for the introduction of Hainan Free Trade Port Law, striving to get greater autonomy in legislation and reform. By far the draft law has passed the first reading by the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress and undergone the stage of public opinion solicitation.

Three years ago, General Secretary Xi Jinping in his important speech on April 13 welcomed “Investors from all over the world to take part in the building of the free trade port in Hainan so as to share China's development opportunities and the outcomes of its reform and opening up."

The progress in the past three years has proved that Hainan Free Trade Port is indeed a land of opportunities for all the people around the world, so, please come to Hainan to explore your opportunity!