China News Agency Haikou, June 3 (Reporter Wang Xinli Yin Haiming Wang Ziqian) China recently announced the construction of the world's highest level of opening, the most internationally competitive and the most distinctive free trade port on Hainan Island, this is regarded as China's new one Why did the "experimental field" of high-level reform and opening up land on the southernmost, youngest province of Hainan Island with a smaller economy?
The reporter interviewed experts and scholars in various fields, and they made interpretations from different angles.
Chi Fulin, president of the China (Hainan) Reform and Development Research Institute and president of the Free Trade Port Research Institute with Chinese Characteristics, said that Hainan has the unique advantage of implementing comprehensive deepening reforms and the highest level of opening-up policies. First, Hainan is an independent geographic unit. Second, the resource endowment is good, and it has multiple resources such as land and sea. Third, the geographical position is superior. It is necessary to build Hainan Free Trade Port into a clear banner and an important opening portal that will lead China's new era of opening up to the outside world, and play an important role in China's opening strategy.
Wu Shicun, president of the China South China Sea Research Institute and vice president of the China Free Trade Port Research Institute, agrees. He said that Hainan is backed by South China, facing the Southeast Asian market, and has a unique geographical advantage. As a major strategic move for China's new round of opening to the outside world, the construction of the Hainan Free Trade Port will promote trade and investment between China and neighboring countries, enhance the freedom of trade and investment in the region, facilitate the level, optimize the industrial structure in the region and form Complementary advantages.
Up to now, China has 18 pilot free trade zones, but only Hainan is required to transition from a pilot free trade zone to a free trade port. Cao Yuanzheng, chairman and economist of BOC International Research, believes that this is closely related to the country's positioning of Hainan.
He interpreted from the deep history of the Chinese nation. In the past, Chinese civilization was basically a continental civilization. Facing the rising marine civilization, China began to decline in the late Qing Dynasty. From an economic perspective, the economic meaning of marine civilization is free trade, market economy, and related institutional arrangements. In this sense, China’s reforms more than 40 years ago actually embraced marine civilization. Facing the current profound adjustment of the world economy, in order to defend economic globalization, China, the second largest economy, needs to deepen its market economy and expand its opening up. The free trade port is the highest open standard in the market economy. Benchmarking its standards is not only a need for China's reform and development, but also a historical trend in line with economic globalization and the building of a community with a shared future for mankind. The construction of Hainan Free Trade Port was proposed on the basis of the above, and constitutes its historical position.
Hainan is located at the southernmost tip of China. Hainan Province was established in 1988. It is the youngest province in China and the largest special economic zone in China. It is located in a special geographic location facing the Pacific Ocean and the Indian Ocean, and is an important node of the “Belt and Road” initiative. It has a land area of 35,400 square kilometers, a sea area of 2 million square kilometers, and is rich in tropical agricultural resources, as well as tourism resources such as islands and tropical rain forests. The current permanent population is 9.472 million.
In fact, Hainan is the epitome of China's reform and opening up. From 1950 to 1987, Hainan was China's coastal defense frontline and natural rubber production base. From 1988 to 2009, Hainan Province established the country's largest special economic zone. From 2010 to 2020, Hainan will build an international tourist island. The construction of Hainan Free Trade Port will start in 2020. It is expected that Hainan Island will operate as a customs surveillance zone by 2025.
Hainan has the “genes” of reform and opening up, and has pioneered many national leaders: at the beginning of the province in 1988, it proposed to establish a socialist market economic system; an administrative system of “small government, big society” was established; Economic Development Zone; the implementation of the pilot reform of the shareholding system of enterprises owned by the whole people; the implementation of the direct registration system of corporate legal persons that “get on the bus before buying tickets”; reform the management of highway fees and charges, “stepping on the accelerator”; A scene of great significance in the history of China's reform and opening up; since the new century, Hainan has taken the lead in building an ecological demonstration province in the country; the province has implemented "multiple regulations in one".
Foreign exchanges and cooperation are becoming more frequent. Since the establishment of the Boao Forum for Asia in 2001, it has so far developed into a high-end platform for promoting regional economic cooperation in Asia and an important stage for China’s multilateral diplomacy.
In October 2017, the report of the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China proposed for the first time "Explore the construction of a free trade port". In April 2018, China announced its support for the construction of a free trade pilot zone across Hainan Island, Hainan’s gradual exploration and steady advancement of the construction of a free trade port with Chinese characteristics, and the establishment of a free trade port policy and system in steps and stages.
After two years of construction, Hainan has taken innovation as the engine and accelerated the establishment of a new open economic system. In 2019, Hainan's regional GDP reached 530.894 billion yuan (RMB, the same below), and its per capita GDP ranks in the middle reaches of the country.
Needless to say, compared with the developed provinces in China, especially compared with Hong Kong, Singapore, and Dubai, the world's three largest free ports, Hainan's economy is still small, its industrial base is weak, and its economic outgoingness is not high.
The construction of a free trade port places high demands on Hainan's execution and innovation.
Cao Yuanzheng believes that the construction of Hainan Free Trade Port is "swimming in the high seas", and the challenges are even greater than the opportunities. Hainan wants to work in middle schools, learning while doing, and creating standards. This is also the basic experience of China’s 40 years of reform and opening up.
Wang Xinkui, director of the Shanghai WTO Advisory Center, emphasized that the construction of the Hainan Free Trade Port must mobilize all officials and people to participate. Only by creating an atmosphere of participation can good results be achieved. (Finish)