Hainan island is to focus on projects such as the new Haikou International Duty Free City complex and promoting its offshore duty free shopping industry, as part of a new recently-announced three-year action plan, TRBusiness has learned.

According to information posted on the Hainan government website, the purpose of the action plan, revealed on 17 May, is to improve the investment structure and quality of the Hainan Free Trade Port (FTP).

Scheduled to open in mid-2022, the Haikou International Duty Free City project is located at Xinhai Port, Haikou and occupies a plot of more than 675 acres. The site will feature around 930,000sq m of tax and duty free shopping space operated by China Duty Free Group.

As mentioned, part of the three-year plan involves promoting Hainan’s new game-changing offshore duty free shopping scheme which was announced last year.

This included the tripling of the duty free allowance to RMB100,000/US$15,599 per person/per year in line with plans for the FTP, which were announced in early June 2020. The raised allowance and other relevant regulations, including an expanded duty free category list was implemented on 1 July 2020.

SIGNIFICANT DEVELOPMENTS IN HAINAN

There has been significant development on the island since the implementation of the raised duty free allowance. Leading retailers such as DFS Group, Dufry and Lagardère Travel Retail have opened stores in partnership with Chinese entities, a home delivery service was introduced and most recently the inaugural China international Consumer Products Expo (7-10 May) took place.

The Hainan Expo as it was known, attracted a strong line-up of retailers and suppliers from across the travel retail industry.

According to the Hainan FTP Investment Policies (2021-23) plan, the construction of the Hainan FTP is in its initial, but most critical period, with improvement required in investment structure and efficiency and industrial transformation and upgrading.

Over the next three years, Hainan will focus on tourism, modern services and advanced technology, as well as tropical agriculture, manufacturing, infrastructure, livelihood projects, social investment and other key areas.

It will also look to promote investment efficiency and quality and expand investment volume.

The government said: “Through the implementation of the three-year plan, the island province will strive to achieve an annual investment growth rate of no less than 10% and build a better investment structure.

“By 2023, investments will be higher quality and generate better outcomes.”

In terms of modern services, Hainan will seek to build an international settlement institute, a new type of offshore international trade service centre and other projects. It will also look to grow the number of international enterprises establishing their headquarters on the island.