International pilot free trade zone

The Hawaii of China, as it’s been called, just celebrated its 30th anniversary as a province and special economic zone. To mark the occasion, the central government announced its ambition to fashion Hainan into an international pilot free trade zone.

Hainan is planning to develop six major industrial parks in various fields including space science and technology, deep-sea research, seed crossbreeding, and tropical agriculture. These projects are meant to attract investment and talent from around China and the world.

To realize its goal of transforming Hainan into an international free trade zone, the government recognizes it must address Hainan’s huge shortage of talent both domestically and internationally and has therefore launched a new recruitment plan.

Recruitment plan

Hainan will grant permanent residence rights to top-tier overseas talents, their spouses and children under 18.

Overseas talents of lower levels can apply for entry visa and work permit.

Foreign students who receive master’s degrees or higher from Chinese universities are also encouraged to work at and operate businesses on the island. A green channel will be created to allow them to send their income home legally.

To facilitate all the planned new arrivals, the provincial government is building a unified platform to provide convenient service to incoming talents such as residence registration, talent identification, housing subsidy applications, enterprise registration, school enrollment for children, etc.