On November 2, a promotion meeting for representatives of enterprises in the Republic of Korea—part of the Hainan Free Trade Port Global Investment Promotion Event—was held in Haikou, the capital of southern China's Hainan Province. The meeting, which was held online, saw heads of the province's various government departments and representatives of FTP industrial parks introduce the Hainan FTP's latest progress, policies, and location advantages to representatives of South Korean enterprises. Hainan also sincerely invited the country's entrepreneurs and professionals to come to the Hainan FTP to seek business opportunities and share in the dividends of China's reform and opening up.

South Korean business representatives participating in the promotion meeting. (Photo: Wang Ziyao/Hinews)

In the view of Kim Dong-Joo, a former member of the Republic of Korea's National Assembly, South Korea and China are geographically close, and South Korea and Hainan are strongly matched in terms of cooperation. The country leads in medical aesthetics, manufacturing, culture, and entertainment. At the same time, the Hainan FTP has huge potential in tourism, modern services, and high-efficiency tropical agriculture, setting the stage for in-depth cooperation between the two sides.

In recent years, cooperation and exchanges between South Korea and Hainan have deepened. In terms of trade, trade in goods and services between the two sides grew by 56.5% and 894.7% year-on-year respectively in 2023, while direct investment from Hainan in South Korea hit US$5.76 million, a year-on-year increase of 100%. South Korea is also an important source country for inbound tourists to Hainan. In the second half of 2023, the number of tourists from the country visiting Sanya—a resort city at the southern tip of Hainan Island—shot up by 423% year-on-year. Many South Korean tourists have shown interest in leisure vacationing, sightseeing, and golfing in Hainan.

Representatives of South Korean firms attending the meeting expressed optimism about the Hainan FTP's development prospects after learning more about the FTP's raft of preferential policies. Many of them stated that they would visit Hainan as soon as possible to conduct on-site inspections and discuss cooperation with a view to advancing more projects in the FTP.

"We hope to use this event to establish a new cooperation mechanism enabling more South Korean products to enter China through Hainan." Cho Jae-hyun, president of South Korea's K-theme Park, said that the Hainan FTP's policies are very attractive to enterprises. He hopes to seize the initiative by establishing operations in Hainan as soon as possible and expanding his firm's market.