Hainan expo draws HK businesses with eyes on mainland

Companies from the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) are flocking to the 4th China International Consumer Products Expo (CICPE), eyeing the favorable policies in South China’s Hainan Province and the massive consumption market in the Chinese mainland.

This year, the Hong Kong Trade Development Council is attending the CICPE for the fourth year, leading a delegation of 24 enterprises and 40 brands with a floor area expanding to 600 square meters, the largest in history.

“This is my second time attending the CICPE, and some of our old customers have come specifically to our booth to place orders,” Ken Wong, director of Hong Kong-based All Times Healthy Co, told the Global Times on Monday.

In addition to providing a springboard to the massive Chinese consumption market, the development of the Hainan Free Trade Port (FTP) and its policy dividends have attracted a number of Hong Kong companies to settle in Hainan.

A master plan for the FTP released in 2020 aimed to build Hainan into a globally influential high-level FTP by the middle of the century. An FTP system focusing on trade and investment liberalization and facilitation will be “basically established” in the province by 2025 and become “more mature” by 2035, according to the plan.

With the establishment of the Hainan FTP, we believe that the benefits Hong Kong enjoyed in the past will be repeated in Hainan and even surpassed. This has strengthened our confidence in investing in Hainan,” Charles Yang, general manager of health products dealer AUSupreme International Trade (Hainan), told the Global Times on Monday.

“What we value most is that the personal income tax and corporate income tax ceilings in the Hainan FTP have been adjusted to 15 percent, even lower than HKSAR’s 17 percent. This is a significant advantage in terms of taxation,” Yang said.