A seminar on "Hainan Free Trade Port under RCEP" was held in Haikou on March 6. Domestic experts and scholars, relevant institutions of Hainan Province and representatives of entrepreneurs jointly discussed the positioning and role of Hainan Free Trade Port under RCEP, as well as promoting the cooperation between Hainan Free Trade Port and ASEAN. Sheng Yi, member of the Decision-making Advisory Committee of Sichuan Provincial Government and researcher of Sichuan Academy of Social Sciences, attended the meeting and gave a speech.
Chi Fulin, President of The China (Hainan) Institute of Reform and Development and President of the Institute of Free Trade Ports with Chinese Characteristics, said in his speech that it is of great strategic importance and urgency to give full play to the role of RCEP as the world's largest free trade zone and strengthen regional cooperation between China and ASEAN. Hainan, with its unique geographical advantages, plays an important role as a strategic hub in RCEP and China's big market.Seizing the major opportunity presented by the RCEP coming into force, the Hainan Free Trade Port should advance its opening-up at a higher level while serving the overall interests and grasping the general trend. Thus, Hainan Free Trade Port plays a special strategic role in the changes unseen in a century. Chi Fulin suggested accelerating the formation of the relevant policy and institutional environment with the goal of building two "headquarters". One "headquarters" is to form the headquarters of domestic enterprises facing ASEAN market and the other "headquarter" is to attract non-RCEP members to set up a regional headquarters in Hainan Free Trade Port for the Chinese market. At the same time, special measures should be taken to strengthen international exchanges between Hainan Free Trade Port and speed up the establishment of a regional international cultural exchange center.
Zhao Jinping, former head of the Foreign Economic Research Department of the Development Research Center of The State Council, believes that RCEP has strengthened the opening effect of Hainan Free Trade Port. Besides the overlapping effect of RCEP and Hainan Free Trade Port policies, RCEP is also conducive to improving the opening level of Hainan Free Trade Port and forcing Hainan to improve the utilization capacity of high-level opening policies. He proposed to build the Hainan Free Trade Port into a new service trade center in the RCEP region.
Sheng Yi, researcher of Sichuan Academy of Social Sciences, suggested that Hainan Free Trade Port should be positioned as a demonstration area for the development of new processing trade in China, and actively explore the processing trade model of "one head outside, one head inside";Hainan should be built as a gathering base for middle and high-end product processing trade;a pattern dominated by new type of processing trade should be built to promote the transformation of enterprises into integrated development of manufacturing and service trade, of processing and assembly enterprises into technology, brand and marketing enterprises.Thus, an industrial chain with internationally competitiveness is formed.
Wang Huiping, secretary of the Party Committee and Chairman of Hainan Federation of Social Science Associations and president of Hainan Academy of Social Sciences, believes that the implementation of RCEP is both an opportunity and a challenge for Hainan Free Trade Port. He suggested that specific measures should be formulated for industries with advantages in Hainan to meet RCEP challenges. He advised to strengthen the AEO certification system of the International Customs Organization, carry out the pilot program of "first-line liberalization and second-line containment" in 11 key industrial parks in Hainan province before the complete customs closure, and further expand the scope of application of value-added processing policies; he suggested increasing the introduction of headquarters enterprises and further improving Hainan's zero-tariff policy.
This seminar is hosted by China (Hainan) Institute of Reform and Development, and organized by Institute of Free Trade Ports with Chinese Characteristics and Hainan Academy of Social Sciences.
Translated by Zhou Mengjiao