Singapore supports Hainan’s development as free trade port: PM Wong
Under this arrangement, most international goods can enter Hainan province tariff-free
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[BOAO, Hainan] The free trade port of Hainan, one of the world’s youngest, is looking to Singapore for lessons, and Singapore is keen to share its experience, leaders from both sides have said.
“Singapore has long supported the development of this free trade port, and will continue to provide whatever support we can for its success,” Prime Minister Lawrence Wong told Hainan Communist Party secretary Feng Fei at a meeting on Mar 26.
He explained that as Singapore is a free trade port which relies heavily on trade, it is more successful when the world has more free trade and free trade ports.
“So we welcome the addition of Hainan as the newest member of the free trade ports,” he said, adding that its potential to be “tremendously successful” is unlimited.
Feng described Hainan as the world’s youngest free trade port, it having begun “independent customs operations” on Dec 18, just over 100 days before.
Under this arrangement, most international goods can enter Hainan province tariff-free, while it maintains a separate customs boundary from the rest of China.
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While China has set up free trade zones within places such as Shanghai city and the provinces of Guangdong and Fujian, Hainan is the first case where an entire province is being developed as a free trade port.
“We look to Singapore as a model to learn from,” Feng said, thanking Singapore for having provided training to his officials.
He acknowledged that Hainan still has much catching up to do. Yangpu, the island’s main container port, handles about 3.3 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) a year, compared with well over 30 million TEUs in Singapore.
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But Feng said Hainan has its strengths. He noted that the free trade port could serve as a gateway for foreign firms to access China’s vast domestic market, mirroring Singapore’s position as a free trade port that serves as a gateway to South-east Asia.
The island province is also developing renewable energy capacity, including offshore wind power, leveraging its proximity to the South China Sea.
PM Wong said this presents opportunities for cooperation, noting that Singapore, which has limited land for data centres, could explore locating such facilities in Hainan and tap the relatively abundant electricity generated by its wind farms. This is provided that both China and Singapore can allow the free flow of data, he said.
PM Wong added that discussions on a digital economy agreement between the two countries are under way.
The two leaders agreed that Singapore and Hainan have much to gain from cooperation and that there is strong complementarity between them.
PM Wong, whose father was born in Hainan, told Feng this is his first visit to Hainan as prime minister.
He later posted a photo of himself trying the local speciality on X, writing: “Had to try the Hainanese Wenchang chicken rice here in Hainan!” THE STRAITS TIMES
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