HAIKOU, April 20. /TASS/. The city of Sanya over the past two years has become very important for the free trade zone and port that is being developed on the Island of Hainan, stated the propaganda department of the provincial party committee.
"Over the two years Hainan's free trade port's development was underway, Sanya was able to achieve amazing results and become a key link in this project," the statement reads.
The authorities recalled that since 2018, the resort city has significantly facilitated the implementation of not only trade, economic, but also cultural and social programs — the Hainan International Film Festival being one of such events held in the province. Moreover, as noted, Sanya reached a significant breakthrough in the promotion of all kinds of entertainment projects, including those in the field of consumer tourism. The world's largest duty free zone, located in Sanya, had a big impact on that development.
Long-term plans
According to plan, optimal conditions should be created in Sanya for the formation of the financial sector by 2021, which is expected to play an important role in the development of the local free trade zone. In order to do so, many Chinese and foreign corporations, banks and insurance companies will open their offices on the island.
“Since 2018, the city hall has signed strategic cooperation agreements with more than 30 financial organizations,” said a representative of the local administration. He recalled that at the same time, Sanya established its own promising companies operating in the trade and financial sphere, for example, Sanya International Trading Group, or the Hainan International Commercial Factoring Company.
Attracting investors and qualified personnel
In April, the Yazhouvan scientific and technical development zone in Sanya announced the launch of a large-scale program to draw valuable specialists with annual salary of at least 800,000 yuan ($ 113,000 at the current exchange rate). The authorities promised that they would create the most favorable conditions and provide the highly qualified personnel with the most comfortable life and work conditions.
According to the government plan, branches of world-famous universities and offices of major research centers will appear in the city: in the second half of 2019 alone, up to 10 such structures were opened in Sanya, supervised by respectable organizations from various regions of China.
"Sanya is now actively developing tourism, the modern services sector, advanced technologies. <...> Each of the tasks outlined requires the involvement of competent specialists," the representative of the local administration pointed out.
According to him, over the past two years, the administration has carried out active work to improve the local legal framework, internationalize legal norms, and optimize the tax, financial and customs sectors.
In order to attract more investors, the authorities are working to ease the procedures related to the registration of new enterprises and real estate, introduce new preferential rules for business. Thus, many official documents of both regulatory and recommendatory nature were drafted and approved.
“On February 18, we created the Sanya Investment Promotion Office,” the local authorities said in a statement. “Due to this innovative structure, our city will be able to constantly improve the climate for business and create effective long-term mechanisms to draw investors.”
The novel coronavirus pandemic
According to local authorities, one of the important achievements of the Sanya administration this year was the quick and successful response to the novel coronavirus outbreak. Mobile network of volunteers, which greatly facilitated the work of the government, doctors and law enforcement officials, played a big part in ensuring social control necessary to suppress the epidemic. By the beginning of March, when the last infected person was discharged from local medical institutions, the city was able to create favorable conditions to boost trade, economic and cultural activities, which, due to the introduction of tough restrictive measures amid the increasing pandemic in the world, were temporarily reduced.
According to the government's plan, by 2023, in order to boost the development of social services, which will deal with a wide range of issues in an integrated system mode, including registration of various licenses, issuing permits for advertising, medical and other activities, the Sanya administration will set up 32 specialized complex centers.
“Continuous work is underway to create important industry facilities, and new innovative mechanisms are being actively developed on an experimental basis. We achieve this due to solidarity, the combined efforts of the authorities and the public,” the representative of the local administration emphasized.
In April 2018, President Xi Jinping said that the Chinese authorities intend to actively involve Hainan in globalization and to draw foreign investors to the island province.
By 2050, according to the authorities, the island should become a unique international cluster with an advanced economy, developed tourism, top-notch scientific, technical and financial potential, and modern medicine. The branches of the best universities and offices of the most powerful corporations in the world will be located on the Island of Hainan.