ANYA /China/, October 15. /TASS/. China’s first International Center for Supporting and Servicing Serbian Enterprises has been inaugurated in the city Sanya, China’s southernmost province of Hainan, the Hainan Ribao daily reported on Monday.

According to the newspaper, the center began work on October 11. On the same day, the Sanya Investment Promotion Bureau and the Serbian Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Shanghai signed a cooperation agreement.

 The center’s mission is to further promote Chinese-Serbian relations, encourage trade-and-economic and cultural exchanges between the two countries, and to turn the city of Sanya into a link connecting Serbian companies and the island’s free port.

The center makes it possible for Serbian companies to use the advantages and preferences of the Hainan free port and will help Sanya to attract more foreign investment and boost its investment potential.

Along with the expansion of business ties, the sides also agreed to develop cultural exchanges and promote tourism.

On June 1, 2020, China’s Communist Party Central Committee and the Chinese State Council released a program for the development of a free port on Hainan. The document establishes a special customs zone on this tropical island. The construction of a free port on Hainan, with a system of ensuring free trade and investments, is expected to be finished in 2025. It is planned to ensure the freedom of trade and investments, cross-border movement of capital and people, and cargo shipments by 2035.