HAIKOU, May 22. /TASS/. China's central leadership plans to accelerate the process of creating a free trade zone in the southern Chinese province of Hainan, announced Premier of the State Council Li Keqiang.

“We need to make even more energetic efforts to turn Hainan into a large international zone for tourism and consumption,” he noted, speaking at the opening ceremony of the third session of the National People's Congress (the highest legislative body) of the 13th convocation. “We need to stimulate the development of the tourism industry, fully use regional tourism potential, develop rural and "red" tourism (travel to places of revolutionary glory — TASS)."

According to the premier, Hainan free trade zone's further development is one of the state projects of utmost importance. In order to do so, the official proposed accelerating the development of special customs zones in the island's west, where the port of Yangpu is located — a key logistics point which is expected to become crucial for Indochina states' trade with the east, as well as with Russia and Mongolia through Central China to the countries of Southeast Asia.

“We should give such pilot free trade zones more authority, facilitate the reforms carried out there, achieve even more significant results in the field of institutional innovations,” Li Keqiang concluded. 

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.