One year on, Hainan FTP law secures wider opening-up

HAIKOU -- Since the implementation of the Hainan free trade port (FTP) law on June 10, 2021, Hainan has issued 17 related regulations, with the new law speeding up local legislation to guarantee better development and wider opening-up of the Hainan FTP.

According to the law, the construction of the Hainan FTP focuses on trade and investment liberalization and facilitation.

The Hainan FTP law requires more foreign-related content to be reflected in the process of implementation, especially speeding up supporting legislation to ensure high-level opening-up, said Chi Fulin, head of the Hainan-based China Institute for Reform and Development.

Over the past year, Hainan has issued regulations on fair competition, bankruptcy, intellectual property rights (IPR) protection and commercial deregistration, to ensure that Hainan FTP construction is in line with high-standard international economic and trade rules.

Hainan has advanced institutional innovation and established the FTP bankruptcy system with Chinese characteristics. The Haikou bankruptcy court, the first of its kind in the province, was founded last December to process all kinds of bankruptcy-related cases.

He Ziling, head of the Haikou bankruptcy court, said that the court had handled 199 bankruptcy and liquidation cases as of May, improving the ease with which enterprises handle bankruptcy, while reducing bankruptcy costs.

As supporting legislation of Hainan FTP law, the IPR protection regulation, which went into effect on Jan 1 this year, provided the legal basis for Hainan to build a world-class IPR highland, said Xia Junli, head of the Hainan Free Trade Port Intellectual Property Court.

Hainan initiated cross-class protection of unregistered well-known trademarks and created rules on the protection of registered trademark goods for parallel imports and original equipment manufacturing.

The practices have promoted the trials of high-standard international economic and trade rules in Hainan, serving as stress testing for a higher level of opening-up.

The rule of law is key to a good business environment. Last September, Hainan issued a regulation on optimizing the local business environment, which plays an important role in guiding and guaranteeing the building of Hainan's business environment.

The improving business environment has attracted more and more foreign companies to invest in the tropical island.

Data from the provincial commerce department shows that 1,936 foreign-funded enterprises were newly established in 2021, a year-on-year increase of 92.6 percent. Meanwhile, the actual use of foreign investment exceeded $3.5 billion, up 16.2 percent year-on-year.

The foreign investment fever continued this year. Hainan actually utilized $1.04 billion of foreign investment in the first four months, up 54.8 percent year-on-year.

China released a master plan in June 2020 to build the island province into a globally influential and high-level free trade port by the middle of the century.