The first negative list for cross-border trade in services for Hainan Free Trade Port (FTP) was issued on July 26. An important step since the establishment of the FTP, it is also the country's first negative list in the field of trade in services.
A pillar industry in Hainan Province, the service sector, contributes more than 60 percent to the province's GDP. The latest negative list will facilitate the introduction of new service models and diversify supplies of services.
Since the overall plan for the Hainan FTP was released in June last year, the province has formulated over 140 policies designed to promote development of the FTP.
In free trade facilitation, except for the goods subject to export restrictions and compulsory inspection and quarantine, all goods from abroad and inside the free trade zone are free from customs supervision to enter and exit the border, and tariffs will be collected only when the goods enter or exit non-free trade zones from the free trade zone, said a trial policy.
The 2020 version of negative list for foreign investment access in the FTP includes only 27 items, the shortest of its kind in China.
A pilot program for the facilitation of cross-border payments of foreign trade and policies concerning foreign exchange administration for new-type offshore trade have made cross-border capital flows easier.
Hainan has also launched pilot reform on the service and management of international professionals, including trial rules for appointing foreigners as leaders of public institutions and state-owned enterprises. The province has also recruited global candidates as heads of the Sanya municipal bureau of tourism promotion and the bonded port development bureau of Yangpu Economic Development Zone.
The whole system is scheduled to be primarily completed by 2025, and the next two or three years will be time for Hainan to make breakthroughs in turning the pilot program into a real FTP by pooling quality resources and building an open and law-based governance environment with a global perspective.
