100 days of island-wide special customs operations: Journalists focus on Hainan's business environment progress

On March 26, a press conference marking 100 days of island-wide special customs operations at the Hainan Free Trade Port was held at the Culture Park on Dongyu island in Boao, south China's Hainan Province. The event drew 120 journalists from 46 domestic and overseas media outlets, who conducted multiple rounds of interviews focused on progress in building the business environment of the Hainan FTP since the launch of special customs operations.

"What have businesses been most concerned about since the launch of island-wide special customs operations?" The question came from a reporter who made her way swiftly to Wang Xuehao, deputy head and spokesperson of the Hainan Provincial Department of Business Environment Development, the moment the main briefing segment of the press conference wrapped up. In response to the reporter's question, Wang said that the most frequent inquiries and demands from businesses have centered on talent policies, fiscal and tax policies, and trade policies.

She noted that the province's 12345 hotline platform has been upgraded into a policy service hub for the free trade port, with dedicated desks added for FTP policy consultations and port services. The platform has also established a three-party call mechanism in coordination with the provincial tax authority, Haikou Customs, and the provincial market regulation authority. In 2025, the platform handled 143,700 FTP policy consultation cases, logged 2,613 entries into its FTP policy knowledge database, and provided services in seven foreign languages including English and Spanish, significantly improving its policy consultation capabilities and international service standards.

A reporter from Hong Kong Commercial Daily then asked about innovative measures Hainan has introduced to support enterprise development. Wang said that during the Boao Forum for Asia 2026 Annual Conference, Hainan released the "Key Twenty Measures for Business Facilitation and Enterprise Support," signaling to the world the province's determination and commitment to supporting high-quality enterprise development. The policy aims to reduce overall business operating costs by accelerating the development of a coordinated enterprise service system, improving regular government-enterprise communication and consultation mechanisms, and establishing an enterprise project service specialist system. Wang also revealed that the full English text of the policy will soon be made available on the Hainan Free Trade Port International Service Portal, providing clear guidance for investors on matters such as business registration procedures and tax policies.

A reporter from China Business Network focused on the results of Hainan's efforts to resolve typical cases for businesses. Wang introduced the province's innovative "rule-of-law consultation" mechanism for resolving major and complex business environment issues, through which 950 historical legacy cases involving enterprises have been identified. As of early March 2026, 782 of these cases had been closed, representing a completion rate of 82.32 percent, with a number of cross-level, cross-sector, and cross-regional legacy issues successfully resolved. This year, business environment departments across the province are working to bring the resolution rate for outstanding legacy enterprise cases to 90 percent.

A reporter from Shanghai Securities News asked about the progress and results of Hainan's initiative to "efficiently handle things in one go." Wang said Hainan has fully completed the first four batches of priority items under the State Council's initiative, with several indicators ranking among the top in the country. The province is working to shift government services from simply being "doable" to being "easy and convenient to handle."

A reporter from China Daily was more interested in the real experiences of businesses, asking which types of policies receive the most inquiries. Wang said that policy stability, ease of benefit delivery, and guarantees for talent relocation are the most frequently mentioned topics on the 12345 hotline platform. Businesses and the public, she noted, are not only interested in understanding policies but are even more concerned about whether those policies can be put into practice. Business environment departments across the province are working to translate policies from documents on paper into tangible benefits in the hands of enterprises.

In 2025, a survey of 10,000 private enterprises organized by the All-China Federation of Industry and Commerce found that nearly 90 percent of businesses felt the business environment in Hainan had further improved. One hundred days into island-wide special customs operations, Hainan's business environment work represents not only a report card, but a commitment to ensuring that businesses are heard and that the government responds — striving to build a business environment where "once you arrive in Hainan, nothing is too difficult," so that enterprises can invest with confidence, operate with peace of mind, and develop with ease.