China News Service, May 27. At a regular press conference held by the Ministry of Commerce on the 27th, Gao Feng, the spokesperson of the Ministry of Commerce, said that at present, the “four beams and eight pillars” of the Hainan Free Trade Port’s trade and investment policy system have been initially established.
At the meeting, a reporter asked: The "Overall Plan for the Construction of Hainan Free Trade Port" is about to usher in its first anniversary. How does the Ministry of Commerce evaluate the progress of the construction of the port in one year?
Is it a good start to achieve the goals set in the overall plan?
Next, in what areas will key breakthroughs be made?
Gao Feng responded that in accordance with the deployment of the Party Central Committee and the State Council, in accordance with the "Hainan Free Trade Port Construction Overall Plan" step by step arrangement and task division requirements, the Ministry of Commerce focused on trade and investment liberalization and facilitation, and solidly advanced various related tasks.
At present, the "four beams and eight pillars" of the Hainan Free Trade Port's trade and investment policy system have been initially established.
In terms of trade, 28 policies and measures to promote the free and convenient trade of Hainan Free Trade Port have been introduced; Hainan will be used as a pilot for comprehensively deepening the innovative development of service trade.
In terms of investment, a comprehensive pilot program to support the expansion of Hainan’s service industry was formulated; 22 special measures to ease market access were formulated, covering five major areas such as healthcare, finance, and culture; and a negative list of foreign investment access for the Hainan Free Trade Port was introduced. The 27 restrictive measures have been retained, and more open arrangements have been made in the fields of mining and automobile manufacturing.
In terms of open platform construction, we successfully held the first China International Consumer Goods Expo, attracting 1,505 companies from 70 countries or regions to participate, and 2,628 participating brands. The number of foreign brands and the exhibition area accounted for 52% and 70%, respectively. There are more than 1,200 participating brands in China; support Hainan to build a national digital service export base and a national Chinese medicine service export base, etc.
Gao Feng said that these policies and measures are to promote the system integration and innovation of Hainan's trade and investment liberalization and facilitation system, to conduct stress tests for the future operation of the island-wide customs closure, and to lay a solid foundation for the construction of Hainan Free Trade Port. .
Gao Feng pointed out that in the next step, the Ministry of Commerce will work with relevant departments and Hainan Province to continue to steadily advance various related tasks. In terms of trade, we will explore further optimizing the policy environment for the supervision of the import and export of goods and articles in specific areas of the Hainan Free Trade Port; while promoting the introduction of a negative list of Hainan’s cross-border trade in services, we will work with Hainan Province and relevant parties to take the lead in key areas. Sort out and standardize domestic regulations that affect the freedom and convenience of trade in services. In terms of investment, the existing opening-up measures are well implemented, and the regional headquarters of multinational companies are actively guided to gather at the Hainan Free Trade Port. At the same time, we will support the Hainan Free Trade Port to carry out higher-level opening stress tests.