Hainan opening up further for businesses and investments

South China's Hainan province saw a growing number of foreign guests and foreign affairs events during the first half of 2019, as the province looks to open up further to the outside world to boost development. 

In this period, Hainan provincial leaders met with officials from overseas at 55 foreign affairs events and attended 16 large-scale international events. The provincial leaders met with foreign guests covering 35 countries on five continents, with most of them hailing from Europe and America. Foreign business delegations visiting Hainan concentrated on the fields of automobiles, education, medical health, trade, tourism, agriculture, and aviation.

To date, Hainan has forged sister regions relationships with 61 places around the world. On July 23, it signed an agreement to establish sister regions relations with Grodno of Belarus to enhance people-to-people ties and make contributions to the Belt and Road Initiative.

According to Grodno Oblast Vice Governor Viktor Liskovich, Hainan is inclusive and business-friendly, and there are many projects worth investing in. He also expressed hopes to open a Hainan-Grodno air route as soon as possible.

Hainan hosted a total of 24 foreign diplomatic delegations in the first half of this year. From April to June of this year alone, there were four diplomatic delegations that came to Hainan.

Hainan holds a promotion conference at the 2019 St. Petersburg International Economic Forum on June 7. [Photo/chinanews.com]

During the promotions of the China (Hainan) Pilot Free Trade Zone, envoys from 17 countries, including Sri Lanka and Spain, expressed their strong interest in Hainan's modern service industry, tourism, and high-tech industries. They said that they looked forward to expanding friendly exchanges and cooperation with Hainan. 

The island province also enjoyed a moment under the spotlight on international stages as overseas media outlets offered full coverage of Hainan's development during its publicity events organized to promote the Hainan Free Trade Zone and Free Trade Port.  

In June of this year, the province sent a delegation to the 2019 St. Petersburg International Economic Forum at the invitation of one of the world's five major news agencies Tass, which is headquartered in Moscow, Russia. At the forum, Hainan and Tass jointly held a special promotion meeting for the Hainan Pilot Free Trade Zone and the launching ceremony of the Hainan column on the official website of Tass, which were attended by representatives of government agencies from more than 20 countries.