SCIO press conference on development of Hainan Free Trade Port

China Financial and Economic News:

It was just announced at the conference that Hainan will officially launch the island-wide special customs operations on Dec. 18. How will Hainan province take this opportunity to accelerate high-quality development and build a modern industrial system with their distinctive local characteristics and competitive advantages? Thank you.

Feng Fei:

Thank you for your question. Building a modern industrial system with distinctive Hainan characteristics and strengths is a task entrusted to Hainan by General Secretary Xi Jinping. It is also the most important undertaking in our pursuit of high-quality development. My understanding of these characteristics and strengths is that they should be grounded in Hainan's comparative advantages and developed into competitive industrial advantages. Overall, the launch of island-wide special customs operations will make it easier to pool global production factors, allocate global resources and promote industrial development. Specifically, we have summarized our approach as "4532."

The "4" refers to efforts to strengthening, extending and upgrading the four leading industries. As I mentioned earlier, these four industries currently account for 67% of Hainan's GDP, an increase of 13.7 percentage points over the past five years. In the tourism sector, we will build an international tourism and consumption center to high standards, and develop Hainan into a world-class tourist destination. Mr. Liu just elaborated on this topic. In modern services, one particularly influential initiative is the China International Consumer Products Expo (CICPE), which has been held five times. It is expanding the reach of new forms of trade to international markets, especially Southeast Asia. In high-tech industries, we are working to expand industrial clusters in areas such as offshore wind power, biomedicine, and the digital economy. In efficient tropical specialty agriculture, we are increasing the supply of tropical fruits and vegetables that are novel, unique, high-quality and well-suited to the region, enriching people's vegetable baskets and fruit bowls. I believe that many of you have already tasted some of Hainan's specialty tropical fruits. The "5" refers to five pathways to strengthening development, with the goal of making Hainan a key demonstration zone for advancing new quality productive forces. These five pathways are defined based on Hainan's unique resource endowments: its tropical climate, deep-sea conditions, geographic latitude, ecological environment and the institutional advantages of a free trade port for opening up. We will pursue strength through seed innovation by building a world-class bio-breeding zone and bringing Hainan-developed seeds to global markets. We will pursue strength through marine development by advancing deep-sea science and technology, and strive to build a "Maritime Hainan" as a new frontier for growth. We will pursue strength through aerospace development by leveraging commercial space launch facilities to drive industrial growth. This means using the launch infrastructure to develop industrial chains related to rockets, satellites, data and broader "aerospace plus" sectors. We will pursue strength through green development by building Hainan into a "low-carbon island." We aim to significantly reduce the carbon footprint of Hainan's products and services to enhance their international competitiveness. We will pursue strength through digital development by developing international data centers and advancing large-scale AI models, seizing the opportunities of the new round of technological and industrial transformation. The "3" refers to three key consumption areas: offshore duty-free shopping, health care and education. We aim to build a strong brand for offshore duty-free shopping, enabling Chinese consumers to access high-quality, cost-effective duty-free goods. We will develop Boao Hope City, also known as the Boao Lecheng International Medical Tourism Pilot Zone, into a world-class hub for global medical resources, where more patients from around the world can access cutting-edge pharmaceuticals, medical devices and health care services under special regulatory policies. We will promote the Study in Hainan initiative, allowing more students to access high-level international education without going abroad. In fact, many excellent independent and joint-venture education programs are already operating in the province. The "2" refers to the development of two key pillars on the island: talent and technological innovation. We will accelerate opening up and cooperation to attract top talent from around the world and empower the building of a modern industrial system through technological innovation. As mentioned earlier, this modern industrial system is being developed through enhanced innovation capacity and the establishment of innovation platforms.

We sincerely invite investors from around the world to come and invest in Hainan. We are committed to providing strong services and support to ensure your success in doing business, attracting talent and achieving growth here. Thank you.