On April 13, 2018, in an important speech celebrating the 30th anniversary of Hainan's establishment of a special economic zone, General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out that he supports Hainan in gradually exploring and steadily promoting the construction of a free trade port with Chinese characteristics. This is the new mission entrusted by the Party Central Committee to the reform and opening up of the Hainan Special Economic Zone, and it is a major reform and opening up initiative personally planned, deployed and promoted by General Secretary Xi Jinping. In the past five years, what progress has been made in the construction of Hainan Free Trade Port?
Recently, "Hainan Free Trade Port launched preparations for the island-wide customs closure operation" has received widespread attention from the society. In Hainan, preparations for the island-wide customs closure operation are also proceeding rapidly and orderly.
What is "island-wide customs clearance"? To put it simply, "the whole island is sealed off" refers to the realization of the import and export management system of "first-line release, second-line control, and freedom on the island" in the whole island of Hainan.
The so-called "first line" refers to the connection between Hainan and the world, "opening up the first line" means that the connection between Hainan and the international market is smoother; "Control and control" refers to the appropriate control of goods between Hainan and the mainland.
Ye Zhanbo, Director of the Propaganda Department of the Deep Reform Office of the Hainan Provincial Party Committee (Free Trade Port Working Committee Office), said: "After the customs closure operation, the objects of customs supervision are goods and articles. By then, economic and trade activities and cross-border capital flows in Hainan will be more free. Convenience, the import business achieves 'zero tariff', and the personal income tax is also the lowest in the country."
"Sealing the customs" is not "closing the island". People traveling from the mainland to and from Hainan will not be affected. For Hainan, it means a higher level of opening up, which will make another important contribution to the construction of the Hainan Free Trade Port.
This year is a critical year to promote the customs closure operation of the Hainan Free Trade Port. At present, from the airport to the port, key projects are being vigorously promoted, and the "hardware" construction of the island's customs closure operation is proceeding quickly and orderly.
Ye Zhanbo: "Hainan is following the deployment of 'have the hardware conditions by the end of 2023, complete the preparations for customs closure by the end of 2024, and realize the operation of the island-wide customs closure by the end of 2025', and promote the preparations for the customs closure operation in a project-based and list-based manner. "
At the Hainan Yangpu International Container Terminal, which is more than 140 kilometers away from Haikou, it was busy early in the morning.
Yangpu has the title of "model room for the construction of Hainan Free Trade Port". One of the important reasons is that the core policies of Hainan Free Trade Port are first tested here to conduct a stress test for the entire island's customs closure operation.
Yangpu Port is located in the center of the main international shipping routes in East Asia and Southeast Asia, adjacent to the ASEAN Free Trade Zone. It is an important seaport of the Northwest Hainan Industrial Corridor and an important node of the "Belt and Road" initiative.
In 2020, with the release of the "Overall Plan for the Construction of Hainan Free Trade Port", Yangpu Port will also be upgraded from a regional port to an international shipping hub for the Western New Land-Sea Corridor due to its unique geographical location. The construction of Yangpu Port is also in accordance with this new positioning, constantly upgrading and improving infrastructure.
Regarding the construction of high-quality and high-standard free trade ports, General Secretary Xi Jinping once gave important instructions, emphasizing that "institutional integration and innovation should be placed in a prominent position." Yangpu has taken the lead in this regard, and the integration and innovation of the "China Yangpu Port" registry port system is one of the highlights.
Shao Jinning, director of the Transportation and Port and Navigation Bureau of Yangpu Economic Development Zone, Hainan Province: "There are many procedures in the traditional registration process, which is a great test for the operating cost of the shipowner, because the slower the process, the greater the cost of the shipowner. We have joined hands with the three departments of maritime affairs and ship inspection to realize the system innovation of joint handling, reducing the original 40-odd days to one day, and shortening the ship registration time to the greatest extent.”
Hainan COSCO SHIPPING Energy Transportation Co., Ltd. is a company with the most registered ships in Yangpu Port, China. The reason why they choose to register their ships in Yangpu Port is that apart from the simple and fast handling process, another important reason is that they can enjoy preferential tax policies here.
Yangpu is a typical example of the many achievements in the construction of Hainan Free Trade Port. Over the past five years, Hainan's overall economic export-oriented degree has increased by 15 percentage points, the scale of trade in goods and trade in services has increased by 1.8 times and 1.2 times respectively, and the actual use of foreign capital in the five years has exceeded the sum of the previous 30 years.
Ye Zhanbo: "The next step is to give full play to the location advantages and policy stacking advantages of Hainan Free Trade Port, actively create a dual cycle intersection, and focus on building 'two bases' and 'two networks'. 'Two bases' are Chinese companies going global The headquarters base of the market and the headquarters base of foreign enterprises entering the Chinese market, the 'two networks' are the air-sea international transportation network and the international economic and trade cooperation network." Among the series of achievements in the construction of Hainan Free Trade Port, another bright spot and hot spot is Boao Lecheng International Medical Tourism Pilot Zone. This is the only "medical special zone" in the country. A series of medical systems that have not been implemented in China are tried here first.
The Boao Lecheng International Medical Tourism Pioneer Zone was established in 2013 with the approval of the State Council. The proposal of the construction plan of Hainan Free Trade Port has accelerated the introduction and implementation of various franchised medical systems here. Among them, the approved use of licensed medical devices that have been marketed abroad and those that have not been marketed in China has allowed many patients to receive medical treatment without going abroad.
Xiaohui is a patient who came from Anhui to the Boao Lecheng International Medical Pioneer Zone for treatment. At the age of 18, Xiaohui was diagnosed with refractory myasthenia gravis. Xiaohui used various medicines that could be found in China, but none of them had any obvious effect.
At this time, Xiaohui learned that there is a special policy in the Lecheng Medical Pioneering Zone in Hainan, where patients can apply for the use of special drugs that have been approved for marketing overseas, but have not yet been introduced in China. Xiaohui came here and soon applied for this specific drug, and she saw hope again.
In order to benefit more patients as soon as possible, over the past few years, various tasks in the Lecheng Medical Pioneer Zone have been accelerating and improving efficiency. Before August 2019, there were only 14 types of licensed medical equipment used here, but now it has increased to 300 types. In 2021, 9,963 people will use licensed medical equipment here, and in 2022, this number will reach 17,853.
As an open international medical tourism market, the positioning and function of the Lecheng Medical Pioneer Zone is not only to keep people who originally want to seek medical treatment abroad to stay in China for treatment, but also to attract overseas people to come here for medical treatment and travel and recuperation. Many medical institutions are also interested in the unique advantages of Zhonglecheng, and they build hospitals here.
The first Hong Kong-funded medical enterprise to land in the Lecheng Pioneer Zone is currently making final preparations before opening. In the past few years, the promotion of the construction of Hainan Free Trade Port and the development of cooperation between Qionggang and Hong Kong have made this Hong Kong company pay attention to the Lecheng Medical Pilot Zone.
At present, 25 medical institutions have opened and operated in the Lecheng Medical Pilot Zone, and 24 medical institutions are under construction and preparations. This includes a considerable number of foreign-funded hospitals. To become a world-class international medical tourism destination is one of the important goals for the future construction of Hainan Free Trade Port.
The "Overall Plan for the Construction of Hainan Free Trade Port" pointed out that Hainan should be built into an international tourism and consumption center. Focusing on this goal, it is also an important content to provide duty-free shopping services on outlying islands so that more consumers are willing to come to Hainan for shopping.
This is currently the world's largest single duty-free city, with four floors above ground and two floors underground. Measured by feet, it takes 10,000 steps to walk on each floor. Even if 40,000 tourists are in the store at the same time, it is not crowded.
Over the past five years, with the support of policies related to the construction of the free trade port, not only has the number of duty-free shops in Hainan continued to increase, but the variety of products and shopping experience have also become more and more different.
In the past five years, the total duty-free sales of Hainan's outlying islands exceeded 130 billion yuan. Not only that, in the past five years, the construction of Hainan Free Trade Port has achieved historic breakthroughs in many fields. The policy and institutional system of the free trade port has been gradually established, and the trade in goods and services has achieved rapid growth. The total amount of foreign capital actually used and the increase in business entities have exceeded the sum of the previous 30 years. Hainan Free Trade Port is advancing steadily along the path of high-level opening up and high-quality development.
In the past five years, the construction of Hainan Free Trade Port has been changing with each passing day. When General Secretary Xi Jinping inspected Hainan in April last year, he emphasized that it is necessary to speed up the construction of a free trade port with Chinese characteristics with world influence, so that Hainan can become a demonstration of China's reform and opening up in the new era. At present, Hainan is making every effort to promote the construction of the island-wide closed customs operation project, accelerate the optimization and improvement of opening policies and related institutional arrangements, promote the interconnection between Hainan and the international market, and enhance openness and competitiveness. This is a "key move" in the construction of Hainan Free Trade Port. In order to reduce the pressure gap before and after the customs closure and avoid major risks after the customs closure, Hainan will try to fully test and implement most of the free trade port policies before the customs closure, so as to ensure that the entire island will be closed before the end of 2025. Hainan is ushering in another take-off of opening up and development.