(Yicai Global) July 13 -- CNY28.1 billion (USD4 billion) worth of construction projects for the planned free trade port in China’s southern island province of Hainan, due to be in operation by 2025, got underway today, online news outlet The Paper reported.

Some 121 projects in industrial development, infrastructure upgrades and public services broke ground. Of these, investments of around CNY5.9 billion are expected to be completed before the end of the year.

Projects include the expansion of the Xiaochantan Terminal in Hainan’s Yangpu Economic Development Zone to 1.8 million twenty-foot equivalent units from 650,000 TEUs.

Container throughput at the Xiaochantan wharf has not been affected by the Covid-19 pandemic, said Lin Jian, general manager at operator Hainan Harbor & Shipping Holding. The port in the Beibu Gulf saw a 60 percent gain in the number of containers handled in the first half from the year before, and a seven-fold leap in those from overseas, he added.

In the month since the Chinese government laid out its plans for the transformation of the tourism hub into a globally-influential free trade port in June, there was a 50 percent increase in the number of new businesses registered in the province to 15,000 from a year earlier, said Governor Shen Xiaoming.

Since the concept of the free trade port was first broached by the central government in 2018, more than 1,000 projects, worth CNY12.2 billion, have already gotten underway, Shen added.

Editor: Kim Taylor