{"id":39576,"date":"2026-03-27T06:09:35","date_gmt":"2026-03-26T22:09:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/?p=39576"},"modified":"2026-03-27T06:09:35","modified_gmt":"2026-03-26T22:09:35","slug":"singapore-supports-hainans-development-as-free-trade-port-pm-wong","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/?p=39576","title":{"rendered":"Singapore supports Hainan\u2019s development as free trade port: PM Wong"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p class=\"font-body-baseline-regular text-primary\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\"><span class=\"dateline\">BOAO, Hainan<\/span> <!-- -->&#8211;<!-- --> The free trade port of Hainan, one of the world\u2019s youngest, is looking to Singapore for lessons, and Singapore is keen to share its experience, leaders from both sides have said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-body-baseline-regular text-primary\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">\u201cSingapore has long supported the development of this free trade port, and will continue to provide whatever support we can for its success,\u201d\u00a0Prime Minister Lawrence Wong told Hainan Communist Party secretary Feng Fei at a meeting on March 26.\u00a0 <\/p>\n<p class=\"font-body-baseline-regular text-primary\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">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. <\/p>\n<p class=\"font-body-baseline-regular text-primary\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">\u201cSo we welcome the addition of Hainan as the newest member of the free trade ports,\u201d he said, adding that its potential to be \u201ctremendously successful\u201d is unlimited.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-body-baseline-regular text-primary\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">Mr Feng described Hainan as the world\u2019s youngest free trade port, it having begun \u201cindependent customs operations\u201d on Dec 18, just over <a href=\"https:\/\/www.straitstimes.com\/asia\/east-asia\/chinas-hainan-island-takes-steps-towards-goal-of-becoming-a-leading-free-trade-port?ref=inline-article\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" class=\"gap-x-04 items-center inline text-primary-60 select-auto\" aria-label=\"link\" target=\"_blank\" data-testid=\"custom-link\"><span class=\"font-body-baseline-regular inline\" data-testid=\"paragraph-test-id\">100 days before.<\/span><\/a> <\/p>\n<p class=\"font-body-baseline-regular text-primary\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">Under this arrangement, most international goods can enter Hainan province tariff-free, while it maintains a separate customs boundary from the rest of China. <\/p>\n<p class=\"font-body-baseline-regular text-primary\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">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.<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-body-baseline-regular text-primary\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">\u201cWe look to Singapore as a model to learn from,\u201c Mr Feng said, thanking Singapore for having provided training to his officials.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-body-baseline-regular text-primary\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">He acknowledged that Hainan still has much catching up to do. Yangpu, the island\u2019s main container port, handles about 3.3 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) a year, compared with well over 30 million TEUs in Singapore.<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-body-baseline-regular text-primary\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">But Mr Feng said Hainan has its strengths.\u00a0He noted that the free trade port could serve as a gateway for foreign firms to access China\u2019s vast domestic market, mirroring Singapore\u2019s position as a free trade port that serves as a gateway to South-east Asia.<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-body-baseline-regular text-primary\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">The island province is also\u00a0developing renewable energy capacity, including offshore wind power, leveraging its proximity to the South China Sea.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-body-baseline-regular text-primary\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">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. <\/p>\n<p class=\"font-body-baseline-regular text-primary\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">PM Wong added that discussions on a digital economy agreement between the two countries are under way.<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-body-baseline-regular text-primary\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">The two leaders agreed that Singapore and Hainan have much to gain from cooperation and that there is strong complementarity between them.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-body-baseline-regular text-primary\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">PM Wong, whose father was born in Hainan, told Mr Feng this is his <!-- -->first visit<!-- --> to Hainan as prime minister.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"font-body-baseline-regular text-primary\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">He later posted a photo of himself trying the local speciality on X, writing: \u201cHad to try the Hainanese Wenchang chicken rice here in Hainan!\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.straitstimes.com\/asia\/singapore-supports-hainans-development-as-free-trade-port-pm-wong\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Read Full Article At Source <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>BOAO, Hainan &#8211; The free trade port of Hainan, one of the world\u2019s youngest, is looking to Singapore for lessons, and Singapore is keen to&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":39577,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2611],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-39576","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-buzz-headlines","wpcat-2611-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39576","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=39576"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39576\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/39577"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=39576"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=39576"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=39576"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}