4月14日早间英文播报：Hainan on rise amid policy boost

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Tourists shop at a duty-free shopping mallin Sanya, South China's Hainan province, on March 12, 2020. [Photo/Xinhua]

Chinaprepares package of measures to expand foreign investors' market access

China is preparing a package ofpreferential policies to further facilitate free trade and investment, andrelax market access for foreign investors in China's southern Hainan Free TradePort, offering huge growth opportunities for global stakeholders, officials andexperts said on Monday.

They said the preferential policieshighlight the government's ongoing efforts to open wider to the outside world,which is set to attract a growing number of global investors from sectors suchas medicine, healthcare, education, high-tech and culture to invest and developin the Hainan Free Trade Port.

Cong Liang, deputy head of the NationalDevelopment and Reform Commission, said China has been actively promoting theconstruction of major projects in the free trade port.

"We will work out an action plan forthe construction of those major projects, and set up a reserve system for majorprojects," he said at a news conference in Beijing.

China has already drafted a negative listfor cross-border service trade in Hainan, and a number of measures will bereleased to further advance trade liberalization and facilitation in theisland, said Vice-Minister of Commerce Wang Shouwen.

Last week, the central government launcheda series of special measures to relax market access in the Hainan Free TradePort and turn it into a focal point for China's deepened reforms.

According to Wang, the Ministry ofCommerce, together with another 19 departments, will jointly unveil 28 specialmeasures in the near future to promote the liberalization and facilitation oftrade, in a move to build a high-quality free trade port in Hainan and improverelated policies for free trade.

Among the measures, the government willrelax curbs on the import and export of crude oil, refined oil, sugar and othergoods, cancel measures for automatic import licenses and import licenses formechanical and electrical products, and exempt technology import and export businessfrom having to go through filing and registration.

The new measures also include developingthe secondhand car export business in Hainan, supporting the province'sdevelopment of new types of offshore international trade and digital,technological and cultural trade and innovating modes of internationalcooperation in the service trade.

A new offshore international trade centerand a regional international exhibition hub will be built in Hainan.

The newly announced measures led shares ofcompanies with links to the Hainan Free Trade Port to jump 1.69 percent onThursday, with Huawen Media Group and Hainan Dadonghai Tourism Centre(Holdings) Co both surging by the 10 percent daily trading limit, according toinformation provider Wind Info.

Experts said the preferential policieshighlight the government's ongoing efforts to implement the master plan for thefree trade port released in June, which requires establishing a basic freetrade port policy system with a key focus on facilitating free trade andinvestment by 2025.

Cui Weijie, deputy director of the ChineseAcademy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation under the Ministry ofCommerce, said the policies will help gather key resource elements, promotehigh-quality development of tourism, modern services and high-tech industriesand establish the Hainan Free Trade Port as a model for other regions to expandopening-up.

Tao Jin, deputy director of themacroeconomic research center of the Suning Institute of Finance, said thepolicy boost is set to promote the innovation-driven and high-qualitydevelopment of the Hainan Free Trade Port. "It is set to attract moretalent and capital from home and abroad and gather various industrial resources."

Tao said that the government was likely toopen up more fields in the cultural, tourism and financial sectors and furthershorten the negative lists for foreign investors' market access.

Fabrice Megarbane, president of L'Oreal'sNorth Asia zone and CEO of L'Oreal China, said Hainan's further opening-up isan innovative way to stimulate consumption, and the company believes it will bea well-balanced strategy to satisfy consumers' huge appetite for beautyproducts.

The French company will showcase a numberof beauty brands in a 500-square-meter space at the upcoming first ChinaInternational Consumer Products Expo in Haikou, capital of Hainan, from May 7to 10.

"Consumption has become the coredriving force for economic growth in China and beauty is becoming a beaconindustry," he said. "We expect to provide more and better productsand experiences for travelers in Hainan."

He Wei contributed to this story.

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记者：欧阳诗嘉、钟南、马智平

播报：JocelynEikenburg

音频编辑：万月英

原文链接：

http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/a/202104/13/WS6074cda4a31024ad0bab4fff.html