In early April, the high temps in China’s southernmost Hainan Province will be around 28℃, which is the same as Brazil’s São Paulo where Vini OLIVEIRA is from. Vini likes the heat on this tropical island, as well as enjoys the lifestyle and workstyle that is available to him here.

 

“It only took a few days to register our company and there were huge discounts provided on office space,” said Vini. He established Hainan Foreseekers Co., Ltd. in Haikou’s Fullsing Town Internet Innovation Park with his partners in 2020 to share with Brazilian companies China's development experience in fields such as livestream shopping, in-city courier service, group purchasing, and e-commerce.

    

Fullsing Town Internet Innovation Park in Haikou. CHEN WEIDONG

 

Brazilian Vini is taking the Chinese experience abroad while German ALBA Group are bringing the international experience to China.

 

In April 2019, ALBA Group used mergers, acquisitions and capital increase to obtain a controlling stake in Hainan Shenzhou New Energy Company, and to fully take over the company’s operations and management.

 

From Berlin to Hainan, the Group has brought their advanced technologies, concepts, and experiences in circular economy to revitalize the company in a progressive way. From loss to profit, things started out rough but are now going swimmingly in their new factory, being built next to the old factory.

 

Optimizing their data based system of organic waste collection and transportation, along with the government opening up various solid waste collection channels, the company has seen a significant increase in the daily processing capacity of the old factory from 200 tons to 400 tons.

 

At the Yangpu International Container Terminal at the northwestern coast of Hainan, ground operations are busy but orderly with vehicles and cranes shuttling back and forth as ships are loaded and unloaded.

 

In June 2021, Global Energy International Co., Ltd. registered and established a branch in Hainan's Yangpu Economic Development Zone, with the main business of providing ship management services to Global Energy and third-party ship owners. Prior to "berthing" in Hainan, Global Energy had already established companies in Singapore and Dubai.

 

"This decision was made thanks to Hainan’s bonded oil policy and the large number of our customers with ships in East Asia,” Kelvin KANG (General Manager at Global Energy Group’s Singapore headquarters Stellar Shipmanagement Services Pte. Ltd.)  explained.

 

Furthermore, the company also enjoys the preferential policies which cap corporate and personal income tax at 15%, the cancellation of restrictions on foreign shareholding in ship registration entities, and permission for non-Chinese crew members to work on ships registered there.

 

In March, their ship “Ma Yue” was the first international ship owned by a foreign-funded enterprise to be registered at the Port of Yangpu. After filling up with the Port’s bonded oil, it is now operating in the waters around Singapore.

 

The ship “Ma Yue” is registered in China’s Yangpu Port in Hainan. (Photo provided to Hainan Daily)

 

Why as De Beers Group, the world's leading diamond brand, decided to make Hainan as their supply chain center in the Asia Pacific region?

 

They have found the answers in the development of the world’s largest free trade port. The combination of free and convenient cross-border capital flow, transportation, and other factors which can improve the efficiency of the supply chain as well as cost reducing policies (such as allowing goods with at least 30% in value-added processing to be sold without tariffs) have been part of what made Hainan the standout choice for a facility which covers both domestic and international markets, and integrates warehousing and logistics, production and processing, and after-sales service.

 

“You could say that the decision by the Group to put our Asia-Pacific supply chain center in Hainan is an important prerequisite for future global market expansion and business development," said WU Feng (Vice President of Global Business Transformation at De Beers Forevermark), with firm confidence in the Hainan market.

 

After an inspection trip in early 2021 and a contract signing in June, the project site was selected in the second half of the year, construction began, construction finished, and the first orders started coming in. According to Mr. Wu, the speed was very fast, but the Group demanded it be even faster.

 

“Speed” is not only De Beers’ goal, it is also the way how PricewaterhouseCoopers operates business in Hainan.

 

In July 2018, PricewaterhouseCoopers held an opening ceremony at Haikou’s Fullsing Town Internet Innovation Park to mark their officially settling down in Hainan.

 

Starting with only a few local clients, they now have hundreds of corporate customers here.

 

“When this branch was first established, we only needed a few employees. Now, we have nearly 30. As the number of employees in the company has increased, the workforce structure has also improved," said Thomas HAN, a co-partner at PricewaterhouseCoopers Consulting Services (Hainan) Co., Ltd. Mr. Han added that the staff at the local branch initially came from other branches but most of the current personnel were recruited locally. This not only enhances the stability of the company's workforce, it also helps with better integrating into Hainan and its culture.

 

Having made great progress in their local business, the company also witnessed some impressive changes on the island. “Government departments’ concepts of service and their abilities are constantly improving,” said Mr. Han, full of confidence that Hainan will continue to prosper.

 

Bringing an immersive entrepreneurial experience to local foreign residents, Haikou held an entrepreneurship and strategy training session. HAINAN DAILY

 

From 2018 to 2021, Hainan's accumulative actual use of foreign capital reached USD 8.81 billion. This is more than 90% of the total foreign capital actually used in the past 30 years since Hainan was established as a province and a special economic zone. And it has not only maintained a steady and rapid growth trend with the number doubling for three consecutive years, but—in terms of total volume—has also entered China’s "top ten" ranks.