On October 11, Feng Fei, Secretary of the CPC Hainan Provincial Committee, met with representatives of international organizations attending the 11th World Free Zones Organization (FZO) World Congress in Haikou. Participants included Umberto de Pretto, Secretary General of the International Road Transport Union (IRU), Holger Bingmann, Deputy Secretary General of the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC), Sean Doherty, Head of International Trade and Investment at the World Economic Forum, and Ismail Ersahin, CEO and Executive Director of the World Association of Investment Promotion Agencies (WAIPA).

On behalf of the CPC Hainan Provincial Committee and the People’s Government of Hainan Province, Feng Fei extended a warm welcome to the visiting representatives and briefed them on Hainan’s economic and social development, as well as the development progress of the Hainan Free Trade Port (FTP).

Feng emphasized that the establishment of the Hainan FTP is a major national strategy personally planned, deployed, and promoted by Chinese President Xi Jinping. The FTP will officially launch island-wide special customs operations on December 18 this year, marking a milestone in its development. It is rapidly emerging as a new frontier of China’s opening up, a new hub for regional cooperation, and a new engine for advancing economic globalization.

Feng noted that Hainan attaches great importance to cooperation with international organizations and hopes to deepen exchanges, enhance mutual trust, and establish pragmatic cooperation mechanisms across multiple areas. He expressed Hainan’s willingness to work with international organizations to promote the FTP to the world, share partner and membership resources, and jointly integrate into the global collaboration network.

He also invited global investors to invest and start businesses in Hainan, calling for expanded cooperation in different fields, including international trade and investment, green and low-carbon development, artificial intelligence, and international logistics, to share new opportunities with the world arising from the FTP’s development.

Representatives of the participating international organizations commended the remarkable achievements in the development of the Hainan FTP and shared insights and best practices from their respective fields. They expressed their hope to use the FZO congress as an opportunity to gain a deeper understanding of Hainan and promote its opening up policies, as well as leverage their organizations’ roles and strengths in addressing global challenges and advancing international cooperation.

They also expressed their intention to encourage global investors to strengthen cooperation with Hainan in areas such as trade and investment facilitation, clean energy production and utilization, and artificial intelligence, support more enterprises in exploring opportunities in Hainan, promote practical project implementation, and achieve mutually beneficial, win–win development.

Bater, Executive Vice Governor of Hainan Province, also attended the meeting.