China News Service, Haikou, October 18 (Reporter Wang Ziqian) This year is the first year of the “15th Five-Year Plan” and the first year of the island-wide customs closure operation of the Hainan Free Trade Port. How is the economic performance of Hainan after the customs closure?
"Generally speaking, the economic operation shows a development trend of 'new kinetic energy, improved structure, and solid foundation', and the vitality, power, and charm of Hainan's development are fully demonstrated." On October 18, the launch and briefing meeting of the "Dynamic China Research Trip" Hainan-themed interview event was held in Haikou, Cong Jinsong, deputy director of the Hainan Provincial Development and Reform Commission, said.
Economic performance is improving month by month
Looking at the overall economic performance, Hainan's economy showed a clear rebound in the third quarter after a smooth start in the first quarter and adjustments under pressure in the second quarter. Judging from the monthly trend, Hainan's GDP growth bottomed out in July, remained basically flat in August, and turned positive in September. The growth rate of 11 key industries in the national economy exceeded 50%, and it has embarked on a bottom-out and rebounding curve.
An important factor contributing to this transformation is the continued release of opening-up dividends after the customs closure, and Chinese and foreign companies accelerating their investment in free trade ports. Data show that within nine months of the closure of the border, Hainan had 238,000 new business entities, an increase of 34.1%, including 186,000 new enterprises, an increase of 79.7%. In September, the manufacturing PMI rebounded to 49.8%, market confidence was gradually restored, and the economic market was basically stable.
Development momentum continues to increase
In an open environment, Hainan's macroeconomic policies have been stepped up to improve efficiency, and development momentum has continued to increase.
In the first year, Hainan promoted the preparation of the "15th Five-Year Plan" with high quality, compiled a list of 100 major policies, major reforms, and major platforms, identified 400 major "15th Five-Year Plan" projects, and accelerated the transformation of "planning drawings" into "construction drawings"; coordinated the use of fiscal, monetary, industrial and other policies, and the projects and quotas of new policy-based financial instruments increased by 98.8% and 127.7% respectively compared with 2025. A number of private investment projects received support and accelerated implementation.
In addition, Hainan has also established a consistency assessment mechanism for enterprise-related policies to ensure that all policies work in the same direction and form synergy; the weighted average interest rate of newly issued corporate loans in August was 2.85%, the comprehensive social financing cost remained low, and market entities have stable expectations and are moving forward with ease.
Domestic demand continues to grow
Driven by free trade port dividends and macro policies, Hainan's effective demand has gradually recovered since this year, and the vitality of domestic demand has continued to increase.
In terms of investment, Hainan has coordinated and promoted the construction of "six networks". The decline in investment has narrowed month by month since hitting the bottom in June, and the investment structure continues to be optimized. According to official disclosures, in the first eight months of this year, Hainan's industrial investment increased by 4% year-on-year and manufacturing investment increased by 7.6% year-on-year, which were 6.9 and 9.9 percentage points higher than the national level respectively; infrastructure investment increased by 10.2% year-on-year, which was 14.2 percentage points higher than the national level; the proportion of non-real estate development investment increased to 78%; the "double" treasury bond project operation rate reached 93.2%, which was 25 percentage points higher than the national level.
In terms of consumption, iconic business formats play a significant leading role. In the first eight months of this year, the total sales of duty-free shops on Hainan's outlying islands increased by 16.2%, and the "buy now and pick up" shopping amount of residents on the island reached 260 million yuan; the Boao Lecheng Pilot Zone received 791,000 medical tourists, an increase of 98.9%, of which overseas medical tourists increased by 4.5 times; the Lingshui Li'an International Education Innovation Pilot Zone has hosted 30 Chinese and foreign universities, and the number of teachers and students has exceeded 13,000.
New productivity accelerates growth
Since this year, Hainan has focused on building a modern industrial system with Hainan's characteristics and advantages. The added value of the four leading industries, namely tourism, modern service industry, high-tech industry and tropical high-efficiency agriculture, has accounted for about 70% of GDP, and the overall growth rate is higher than the GDP growth rate. 36 new aircraft and ship leasing SPV companies have been established, and the semiconductor industry has attracted more than 40 companies to settle in the city.
What is striking is that Hainan’s “Five Directions for Strength” has been gaining momentum. Among them, "Strength to Seeds" has added 6 science and technology innovation platforms, including a pilot research base for the innovative application of biological breeding technology for southern crops; "Strong to the Sea", the country's first "submarine formation space three-dimensional drilling and in-situ monitoring robot" has completed test operations, and the deep-sea industry output value of Yazhou Bay Science and Technology City has increased by 75.5%.
"Strong towards the sky", commercial aerospace has successfully carried out 24 launch missions. The Long March 10B carrier rocket made its first flight and completed the world's first offshore network recovery. Two stations in the second phase of the launch site will have launch capabilities by the end of this year; "Strong towards the green", Changjiang Nuclear Power Unit 3 was put into operation. In commercial transportation, the province's new energy vehicle penetration rate ranks first in the country; "strengthening the digital economy", the core industry revenue of the digital economy is expected to exceed 205 billion yuan in the first three quarters, a year-on-year increase of approximately 11%. A total of 697 games have been launched online, and it has been approved as a national pilot province for international cooperation in the data field.
Co-construction and sharing of development results
At present, Hainan is accelerating the construction of an ecologically friendly free trade port.
In the first nine months of this year, the proportion of days with excellent ambient air quality in Hainan Province was 99.6%, making Hainan the first province in the country to have a 100% compliance rate for the expansion of the carbon market. As of the end of September, the province's clean energy power generation installed capacity accounted for approximately 88%, with wind power and solar energy becoming important growth poles in power supply. In addition, Hainan has coordinated people's livelihood matters, controlled the urban surveyed unemployment rate at around 5.3%, and the per capita disposable income of residents has increased by around 4.5%.
"Green transformation and improvement of people's livelihood go hand in hand, and development results are jointly built and shared," Cong Jinsong said.
