Challenges remain but Hainan will deliver

A day before the third anniversary of the founding of Hainan Free Trade Port, the State Council Information Office on Tuesday said customs officials had busted 66 smuggling gangs that were handling about 200 million yuan ($30.52 million) of funds during 11 operations launched over the past two years.

As expressed at Tuesday’s news briefing, Hainan has been taking measures to optimize its industrial structure for the past three years in order to achieve high-quality development. The idea behind the construction of the port is to make good use of the favorable national policies to realize high-quality development.

What the port has achieved in the past three years is there for all to see. There was a time when Hainan was blamed for relying too much on the realty sector and, not having much to show by way of industry.

However, industrial investment has risen significantly in the past three years. The number of market entities has increased by 763,000; foreign direct investment has doubled for three consecutive years and 233,000 talents have found jobs in Hainan.

In a nutshell, Hainan has optimized its industrial structure and seen higher market vitality, which is helping it attract more business and talents.

However, much more needs to be done. Even when realty was the only thing Hainan could boast of, there was a need for a convenient, world-class business environment based on the rule of law. At Tuesday’s news briefing, the spokesperson said there is still a huge gap between the standards set to build a world-class business environment and the practices being followed.

Attracting more enterprises, consumers, and talents is only the first challenge Hainan faces in building its free trade port. How to provide quality services will be the second challenge that it has to meet. However, we are confident that with policy support from the central leadership, Hainan will rise to the occasion and deliver.

Building a free trade port is a new mission entrusted to Hainan by the state and a new expectation for Hainan. As the world’s largest free trade port, Hainan should not only be good at learning from advanced experience, but also have the courage to innovate and dare to take the road that others have not taken.