On March 9, Hainan Province published the 2022 Hainan Free Trade Port Business Environment White Paper, giving a breakdown of Hainan’s efforts and achievements to optimize the province’s business environment over the past year.

Aerial photo shows the Guoxing Avenue Central Business District in Haikou, home to the WGT (Windows to Global Trade) building and a group of trading enterprises. (Photo: Hainan Daily / Yuan Chen)

According to the White Paper, Hainan issued and promulgated over 40 regulations and key policies related to the business environment and published 29 exemplary cases of business environment innovation. The province was the first in the country to legislate on fair competition and enacted a system allowing enterprises market access by commitment. It established a “land supermarket”, an online platform that allows potential investors and enterprises to conveniently select and view currently available land plots in Hainan. It improved the business environment issue handling platform and verification & supervision mechanism, with the handling rate of accepted issues exceeding 88%. Thanks to unremitting efforts, a system covering all aspects of enterprise service has basically been achieved.

The results of a 2022 survey on the business environment held by the All-China Federation of Industry and Commerce and answered by thousands of private enterprises show that Hainan’s business environment has risen 4 places in the ranking of China’s administrative units compared to 2021. The growth rate of market entities in Hainan has ranked first in the country for 34 months consecutively.

Since China released the master plan for the Hainan Free Trade Port in June, 2020, Hainan has carried out a series of reforms covering institutional integration and innovation, optimizing the legal environment, constructing a market system, and optimizing government services to build a legal, international, convenient and fair business environment. Efforts have been made to shape Hainan’s business environment into an “investment paradise and a hotspot for entrepreneurship.”