HAIKOU, Sept. 6 (Xinhua) -- Southern China's island province of Hainan saw more than 162,000 new market entities in the first eight months of this year, up 19.8 percent year on year, local authorities said.

Among the new market entities, there were more than 75,000 new enterprises in the period, up 75.26 percent year on year, according to the provincial market supervision administration.

In August alone, the province's new enterprises exceeded 14,700, a year-on-year increase of over 250 percent.

In recent years, Hainan has taken a series of measures to optimize its business environment. On June 1, a plan that aims to build the province into a high-level free trade port was released, attracting more domestic and overseas investors to start businesses in Hainan.