China’s Hainan, Hong Kong Join Forces to Further Opening

Liao Shumin

(Yicai Global) April 25 — The local governments of China’s southernmost Hainan province and Hong Kong Special Administrative Region will embark upon a comprehensive cooperation initiative to further expand opening up, give full play to comparative advantages of the two regions and generate mutual benefits and win-win results, said Hainan’s development and reform commission.

The two regions will collaborate in wide-ranging areas, including economy, trade, finance and tourism, the commission said.

In economy and trade, the local government in Hainan encourages companies to implement the “go global” strategy via Hong Kong, while Hong Kong SAR supports Hainan companies to develop the headquarters economy and hold economic investment promotion activities on its territory.

Hong Kong will also explore ways to build a service trade cooperation park in Hainan. Under the cooperation initiative, the companies from the two regions are encouraged to jointly set up sales networks and expand each other’s markets.

In the finance sector, Hainan companies will be supported to issue bonds and bank loans and go public in Hong Kong.

In tourism, Hong Kong will cooperate with Hainan to construct an international tourism and consumption center. The two regions will strengthen joint tourism promotion activities and enhance cooperation on cruise tourism. They will also jointly organize tourism festivals and take part in each other’s tourism events.

Reform and Opening in Region

China’s central government plans to put Hainan at the forefront of its reform and opening up. It identified nine areas to support the province and the region for further opening:

Modern services — China will back the establishment of international trading markets for energy, shipments, bulk commodities, property rights, equity and carbon-emission permits in Hainan, with a focus on tourism, the internet, healthcare, finance and exhibitions.

Information technology — Hainan will develop new-generation IT industries and digital economies, furthering the in-depth integration of modern technology, such as the Internet of Things, big data and artificial intellignece, with the real economy.

Agriculture — China will expand the province’s Nanfan Scientific and Research Breeding Base and build a national tropical agriculture science center.

Scientific research and innovation — China will help Hainan become a pioneer in open space technology innovation by advancing studies on abyssal sea science and technologies and setting up an international demonstrative area for offshore innovation and entrepreneurship.

Tourism — There will be more international flights between Hainan and major destinations worldwide, and the province will enjoy more convenient offshore duty-free shopping policies.

Marine economy — Hainan will benefit from government-backed modernized marine ranching.

Environment — The province will take a leading role in setting up modern institutions for the protection and supervision of the environment and resources, carry out pilot programs for national parks and found national tropical rainforest parks.

Science and education — The central government will push Hainan University to develop world-class programs, encourage famous universities an and research institutes from around the world to open up branches in the province, help Hainan introduce quality education resources abroad and set up more quality China-foreign cooperative education institutions and programs.

Talent — The government will encourage Hainan to conduct pilot programs for a reform in international talent management. Skilled workers from foreign countries and Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan will be able to work and reside in Hainan permanently in line with regulations, and elite foreign students with master’s degrees or above from Chinese universities will be granted the right to work or start a business in the province.

Editor: Mevlut Katik