Hainan pledges more quality jobs to attract talent for developing free trade zones (FTZ), the provincial governor Shen Xiaoming said at a job fair in Beijing last Saturday. 

Shen Xiaoming, deputy secretary of the CPC Hainan Provincial Committee and governor of the Hainan Provincial government, addresses the ‘Talents Wanted in Hainan’ Job Fair. (Photos: Hainan Daily/Song Guoqiang)

“This is a place where you can not only have your dreams realized and ambitions fulfilled, but also enjoy a poetic life”, Shen said, inviting talented candidates worldwide to the southernmost tropical island in South China.   

Chinese President Xi Jinping had declared Hainan China’s 12th pilot FTZ earlier this year, which has turned the island into an “Internet Celebrity” as over 700,000 pieces of online news were generated there over the past six months. 

Xi mentioned that China would be quick to put forward policies and institutions for building a free trade port in Hainan in a step-by-step and phased manner, to speed up exploration of the development of free trade ports with distinct Chinese features. 

Entrusted with such responsibility to be a pioneer in comprehensively deepening reform and opening-up, Hainan has become a forerunner of its counterparts in the course of reform and opening-up in the new era. 

In the past 30 years, it has developed from a remote island into an important window for the world to know China’s reform and opening-up, Thus Shen claimed that reform and opening-up are in the genes of Hainan.

“Hainan will become a center of people, goods and capital and later a hub on the international network of resource distribution”, Shen said, noting dozens of world-renowned enterprises re-structured business in Hainan, which is expected to provide numerous job opportunities for young people. 

Being a hub along the Maritime Silk Road, linking to both the Pacific Ocean and the Indian Ocean, and an island with innate conditions for building free trade ports, Hainan boasts unique geographical advantages.

Audience at the ‘Talents Wanted in Hainan’ Job Fair

Hainan has a unique advantage in becoming a national pilot ground for reform and opening-up. The province will transform into a pilot zone for deepening reform and opening-up on all fronts, a pilot national ecological zone, an international tourism and consumption center, and a major national strategic logistics zone, Shen elaborated ‘Three Zones, One Center’. 

Besides Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan, Hainan is the region with the highest level of openness across China. Huge foreign investment in Hainan is underway thanks to the liberalization and facilitation of trade, said Shen.  

Attendees at the ‘Talents Wanted in Hainan’ Job Fair

“Hainan also plans to further open its tourism policies, including the visa-free policy for tourists from 59 countries, the off-shore duty-free shopping policy and the departure tax refund policy”, Shen added. 

The job fair, jointly organized by the provincial government, Ministry of Education and Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security, has attracted government agencies, universities, financial institutions, private enterprises, foreign-funded companies and key state-owned firms.