Overview: The closure of Hainan Free Trade Port is imminent, and the international business community is optimistic about the new attraction of the Chinese market

The Hainan Free Trade Port is about to launch a full island lockdown operation, which is a landmark measure of China's expansion of high-level opening-up and is attracting widespread attention from the global business community. Recently, multiple international industry organizations, commercial and financial institutions have been discussing the opportunities brought by the closure of Hainan Free Trade Port from different dimensions such as market and industry.

During a recent interview with Xinhua News Agency, the Chairman of the Serbian Chamber of Commerce, Chadairi, stated that Hainan Free Trade Port is committed to promoting consumption, service, and innovative development through clear policy support and long-term tax incentives, in order to attract more domestic and foreign resources. The island wide operation of the Hainan Free Trade Port has a positive impact on all aspects.

Chadairi believes that for Serbia, which has already signed the China Serbia Free Trade Agreement with China, the comprehensive closure of Hainan Free Trade Port is a new opportunity to reach Chinese consumers and establish new investment and technology partnerships. "We will work together with colleagues from the Chinese Chamber of Commerce to build this partnership.

After the closure and operation of Hainan Free Trade Port, a liberalization and facilitation policy system with the basic characteristics of "opening up the 'first line', controlling the 'second line', and allowing freedom within the island" will be implemented. Cha Dairi stated that this is an important step for China to continue expanding its opening-up to the outside world, indicating that China is willing to expand its free trade space, stabilize the global supply chain, and make positive contributions to building an open world economy.

Mohammad Azharuni, the Chairman of the World Free Zone Organization, headquartered in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, with members covering over 140 countries and regions and more than 1600 institutions, believes that the successful practice of Hainan Free Trade Port has demonstrated to the world the importance of institutional innovation, green economy, digital transformation, and global cooperation, fully demonstrating its development potential.

The professional media "Foreign Direct Investment Intelligence Magazine" under the Financial Times published an analysis article pointing out that Hainan Free Trade Port will become a "bridge and experimental zone for pilot promotion of import and export, investment, talent, and data liberalization", with the goal of becoming a bridge for foreign companies to enter China and expand the Chinese market.

Morgan Stanley released a research report stating that after the closure of Hainan Free Trade Port, the number of tax-free goods will significantly increase from the current 1900 to about 6600, with a coverage rate of nearly 74%. The report believes that this will benefit offshore duty-free and tourism retail related enterprises.

According to the analysis of the "Hainan Free Trade Port Tourism Retail White Paper 2025 Edition" jointly released by KPMG China and Muddy Dawett, with the gradual implementation of the lockdown system, tax reform and dual track retail pattern will promote the continued development of the market and create more opportunities for domestic and foreign retailers to participate.

The International Trade Administration of the US Department of Commerce pointed out in its market analysis of financial services at the Hainan Free Trade Port that Hainan, as a pilot area for China's financial opening-up, is further opening up its financial industry and promoting free flow of cross-border capital through free trade accounts, diversified cross-border investment policies, and tax incentives.

Since the official issuance of the Overall Plan for the Construction of Hainan Free Trade Port in 2020, international capital has expressed its confidence in Hainan through practical actions. In the past five years, Hainan has actually utilized foreign investment of 102.5 billion yuan, with an average annual growth rate of 14.6%; 8098 newly established foreign-funded enterprises, with an average annual growth rate of 43.7%; 176 countries and regions are investing in Hainan, with an average annual growth rate of 97% in overseas direct investment. These data confirm Hainan's attractiveness to global capital.

International business people generally believe that the closure of Hainan Free Trade Port is a key measure for China to provide certainty and share market opportunities with global enterprises through institutional opening up, and is expected to inject new momentum into deepening international economic and trade cooperation.