Projects worth 42b yuan progress in Hainan FTZ

A ceremony for the kickoff of 80 projects and the signing of 38 projects at the China (Hainan) Pilot Free Trade Zone attracts great attention and a large number of witnesses. [Photo by Luo Yunfei/Chinanews.com]

Hainan province held a concentrated construction and signing ceremony on May 18 for a total of 118 projects that are located at the China (Hainan) Pilot Free Trade Zone (FTZ).

The ceremony marked the kickoff of 80 projects and the signing of 38 projects with a gross investment of 42 billion yuan ($6.08 billion). They cover fields such as infrastructure, public services, and industrial development.

A large number of market entities have registered in Hainan due to the construction of the China (Hainan) Pilot Free Trade Zone. Since March 19, the number of market entities has grown by 34,000, which is a 97.8 percent increase compared with the same period in 2018. Among them, 13,000 are enterprises and 21,000 are self-employed households.

Hainan FTZ has carried out four batches of concentrated signing ceremonies so far, which involved 458 construction projects with a total investment of 211.3 billion yuan and 233 contracted projects with a total investment of 302.3 billion yuan.

As China's largest and most international metal mining enterprise group, as well as the world's largest metallurgical construction and operation service provider, China Minmetals Corporation announced at the ceremony that it will set up a regional headquarters in Sanya and construct the Minmetals Building in the headquarters economy and central business district.

The corporation is eager to participate in the comprehensive development and construction of Yazhou Bay Science and Technology City, as well as cooperate with Sanya in the fields of cultural tourism, health maintenance, finance, village beautification, and infrastructure construction. In addition, Minmetals Group and Rio Tinto Group will make joint efforts to establish Minmetals Rio Tinto Exploration Co Ltd in Sanya, the first double world top 500 joint venture since the construction of Hainan FTZ. 

Zhang Zhaoxiang, vice general manager of China Minmetals Corporation, said that in this new period, Minmetals is willing to further develop its own advantages and deepen cooperation with Hainan to help the island province's economic and social development.

The first phase in the scientific research building project of Hainan Seed Innovation Institute of the Chinese Academy of Sciences's started on the same day, and received a total investment of 740 million yuan. It committed to creating an important window exhibiting South China scientific research experiments and will become a landmark of Yazhou Bay Science and Technology City in Sanya to display its scientific research to the outside world.

Yang Weicai, dean of the institute, said that it will build a theoretical system of modern breeding research and a new generation of breeding technology platform based on the research and development goal of "precision design and creation of seeds" to achieve the application of accurate design breeding, create a global science and technology innovation center for seed industry, and lead the future development of the seed industry.