On February 6, more than 160 major projects commenced construction in Haikou, Sanya, Danzhou, Wanning, Wenchang, and other cities and counties across China’s southern Hainan Province. A total investment of 59.7 billion yuan (about $8.79 billion) will be made in these projects, with an estimated 18 billion yuan (about $2.65 billion) to be in place by the end of this year.

Photo shows a ceremony held at the construction site for a smart energy building project in Haikou’s Jiangdong New Area, one of the eleven key industrial parks for the development of the Hainan Free Trade Port. (Photo: Hainan Daily / Feng Shuo)

The newly begun projects cover multiple areas including industrial development (25.2 billion yuan, accounting for 42% of the total investment), public service (20 billion yuan, accounting for 34% of the total investment), and infrastructure (14.5 billion yuan, accounting for 24% of the total investment). The new infrastructure projects include telecommunications networks, natural gas networks, water supply networks, power grids, and highways.

In addition, notable projects include a zero carbon demonstration zone project in Bo’ao (700 million yuan), a smart energy building project in Haikou’s Jiangdong New Area (430 million yuan), a national laboratory for South China Sea marine resource utilization (840 million yuan) at Haikou’s Hainan University, a space laboratory based in Wenchang (100 million yuan), a satellite R&D center project (540 million yuan) in Wenchang International Space City, and many more.

In response to the three-year action plan for investment in the Hainan Free Trade Port (2021-2023), the tropical province has been working to boost industrial and infrastructure investment on the island. In 2022, Hainan saw a combined investment of 88 billion yuan (about $12.96 billion) made in major project construction, reaching and exceeding its annual target.