Nov 18, Mr. Gu Jingqi, vice mayor of Sanya city, Hainan province, made a speech during the special promotion conference held in Sanya for the Hainan trip of more than 30 multinational companies, pointing out that Sanya is actively increasing efforts to adjust its industrial structure so as to speed up the economic development of those capital, talent, and technology-intensive industries, e.g. the financial industry. He was inviting the multinational corporations to invest in Sanya.

Currently Sanya heavily relies on tourism and real estate, the two pillar industries, for economic growth, making it vulnerable to external influences and the macro-economic-control policies of China. Therefore the industrial structure of Sanya needs to be adjusted for sustainable development of Sanya city, which is evident in its policies issued this year that preferentially favor newly-emerging industries as well as the modern financial industry. Encouraging progresses have been witnessed in the construction of Sanya ZTE R&D Center, Yacheng Creative Industry Park, Ji Yang Animation Industry Base, and Haitang Bay HP Park.

Being China's largest listed telecommunication equipment company, ZTE started the construction of Sanya ZTE R&D Center in August, which will be completed in two phases. Phase one will include ZTE Sanya Research Institute, ZTE College of Telecommunication, and ZTE International Exchange Center, while the second phase will include ZTE Multimedia R&D Center, ZTE High-end Software R&D Center, Enterprise-level Postdoctoral Workstation, and Technology Transfer and China Work Base for Overseas Scientists. When completed, the expected annual turnover from all these projects will total more than 6 billion yuan and over 8,000 R&D staff will be working and living in Sanya.

Sanya has clearly stated in its recently-issued policies that those qualified enterprises will get government support and preference in aspects of land supply, land investment, business support, tax incentives, etc. In order to be qualified for enjoying the relevant preferential policies, an enterprise shall register right in Sanya in terms of both business and taxation either an international, national, or large regional headquarter, or a management center, R&D center, procurement center, logistics center, financial center, investment center, or marketing center, which also should be an independent legal entity and get taxed in Sanya.

Mr. Zhu Jianyong representing Italy Dailapeita Yacht Manufacturing Co., Ltd. expressed the hope to set up a project R&D center for yacht business along with an after-sale services and maintenance base.

Gu Jingqi said Sanya will optimize its industrial structure to improve the proportion of high value-added industries by continuing to beef up the development of tourism and real estate, meanwhile fostering the financial industry, headquarter business, yacht business, cruise industry, modern commerce and trade, IT, creative industry, and R&D centers.

For the past few days multinational representatives visited Haikou, Yangpu, Boao, and Sanya among other places, witnessing the rapid development momentum of Hainan island with abundant business opportunities.