With the registration of its Hainan cultural company, Sotheby’s, one of the world’s leading auction companies, has landed in Hainan.

The registration was approved on August 11.

“We fully recognize Hainan’s regional advantage,” a Sotheby’s official said. “Sotheby’s thinks highly of the policies of the Hainan Free Trade Port, including trade, investment and cross-border capital flow…and we are looking forward to Hainan’s development prospect in its consumption and trade of art work.”

The New York City-headquartered multinational company now joins other famous brands such as U.S. carmakers General Electric and Tesla, biopharmaceutical firm BioPlus from South Korea, and Hungarian bank OTP, who set up base in Hainan because of its unique beneficial policies for foreign companies. In 2021, when the Hainan Free Trade Port Law came into effect, there were over 1,900 newly registered foreign-invested enterprises in the island, signifying a 92.64% increase over 2020.

For transnational corporations, investing in Hainan has become a popular trend for entering the Chinese market or expanding their presence there. The free trade port policy has made Hainan unique from other Chinese provinces. It is also a driver for China’s new growth of policy of “dual circulation”, in which the domestic economic cycle plays the leading role while the international economic cycle remains its extension and supplement.