Gathering the strength of maritime commerce to support the development of Hainan

(Source: Hainan Provincial Federation of Industry and Commerce)

Hainan’s Free Trade Port has officially entered the “customs clearance at closure” operation, ushering in a new stage of open development. The work to establish the World Chamber of Merchant Mariners is underway. This is both a shared aspiration of business leaders in Hainan and a key focus of the Hainan Federation of Industry and Commerce (General Chamber of Commerce) in 2026. The World Chamber of Merchant Mariners will strive to build a global communication and cooperation platform, integrate merchant mariner resources, and rally the strength of merchant mariners to support the high-quality development of Hainan’s Free Trade Port. In this regard, the provincial Federation of Industry and Commerce has specially invited representatives of merchant mariners to offer counsel and ideas, pooling wisdom and strength to promote the establishment and landing of the World Chamber of Merchant Mariners.

Ding Pengzheng

Senior Vice President, Liaoning Fangda Group

Chairman, HNA Aviation Group

Merchant mariner culture is rooted in China’s maritime civilization. It has distilled core genes of courage to open up and practical innovation. It is a vivid imprint of spirit on this land of Hainan. In Hainan, earlier generations ventured to sea and went down to Southeast Asia on their own—crossing mountains and seas with the boldness to be first, forging commercial ties that link China and the world. This spirit has long been woven into the bloodstream of Hainan.

HNA was born in Hainan and grew up in Hainan—it is a faithful inheritor and a living practitioner of merchant mariner culture. From the early days of pioneering hardship and trials to the breakthrough and soaring flight after rebirth and transformation, HNA has always pushed through layer by layer with an indomitable will. It uses innovation-driven sharpness to write development chapters, perfectly embodying the essence of merchant mariner spirit.

Seizing the historic opportunity of the full-island “customs clearance at closure” for Hainan’s Free Trade Port, the new HNA will deeply inherit the core essence of merchant mariner culture, tightly align with the Free Trade Port’s opening-up advantages, focus on its aviation main business, and empower the entire industrial chain. With an open posture, it connects to the world, helping people get what they want and goods flow smoothly—working hard to build an aviation regional gateway hub oriented toward the Pacific and Indian Oceans, so that maritime civilization shines anew in the new era.

Zhou Jingliang

Chairman and General Manager, Shenzhen Jingtian Food and Beverage Co., Ltd.

I am Zhou Jingliang, a wanderer who set out from Hainan’s Dongfang. After more than fifty years of studying and working hard outside, having traveled across the five continents, I have always kept my hometown—this land that raised me—in my heart.

Precisely because I have traveled the world, I understand more deeply what makes Hainan unique. Here, you have a massive domestic market at your back, neighbors Southeast Asia, and faces the Pacific and the Indian Ocean. It sits at a critical intersection of the “dual circulation” between domestic and international markets. After the Free Trade Port begins “customs clearance at closure,” it will bring unprecedented development opportunities. This is the opportunity history has granted to Hainan, and it is also a call for each one of us who has left home to return.

So, in my golden years, I chose to come back. In the hinterland of the Wuzhi Mountain range, we search for the source of water, letting our hometown’s ecological springs flow to the world. On the eastern coast, we build an ultra–five-star hotel that blends Miao (Li) ethnic culture, using internationalized services to gather global resources, so guests from all directions can experience the depth and warmth of Hainan. I have always firmly believed that with Hainan’s Free Trade Port officially launching full-island “customs clearance at closure,” Hainan will become fresh fertile ground for global entrepreneurs to pursue their dreams.

The “value of merchant mariners” truly lies not only in the accumulation of personal business wealth, but also in whether one’s career can be integrated into the development of one’s hometown and into the grand narrative of national strategies. I am willing to sail with the heart of a child on my side, and alongside the global “merchant mariners,” ride the winds and break the waves on this open land of Hainan—together embarking on a new journey.

Huang Hongsheng

Chairman, Nanjing King Long

Founder of Great Wall New Energy Vehicle Group and Skyworth

As an entrepreneur who set out from Hainan Gaoluo, I have always had my mind on this land that nurtured me. More than forty years ago, carrying my dreams, I went to the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area. I started from a small remote-control manufacturing workshop, created Skyworth’s household appliance brand worth in the billions, and personally witnessed and practiced the spirit of daring to explore and making things happen in the tide of reform and opening up. Fifteen years ago, I had already begun to think about returning to Hainan to set up a factory, but at that time, constraints such as transportation and industrial supporting conditions prevented it from being realized. This regret has always lingered in my heart.

After the Free Trade Port initiated “customs clearance at closure” operations, Hainan further opened up to the outside and introduced a series of preferential policies, bringing more opportunities and benefits to merchant mariners around the world. Hainan and the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area are both key fronts for the nation’s opening up to the outside. Their strategic positioning complements and coordinates: the Greater Bay Area is the core source of scientific and technological innovation and high-end manufacturing, while Hainan is located on the route connecting the Pacific and the Indian Ocean, serving as a front-bridge for merchant mariners worldwide to expand into Southeast Asia, the Middle East, and African markets. After “customs clearance at closure,” policy dividends such as zero tariffs and exemption from duties on value-added processing have been concentrated and released. Cross-border capital flows become even more convenient, providing Skyworth—focused on the new energy sector—with golden opportunities to reduce costs and improve efficiency and to lay out globally.

Based on this, we have firmly decided to position a photovoltaic and energy storage full industrial chain project in Haikou. This is not only a strategic choice by the company to align with the times, but also my responsibility and commitment as someone born and raised in Hainan to give back to my hometown. I believe that with the Free Trade Port’s “customs clearance at closure” operations, Hainan will become fertile ground for global merchant mariners to innovate and start businesses. I look forward to joining hands with merchant mariner colleagues around the world, forging ahead and riding the waves on a new journey, and contributing the strength of merchant mariners to help China’s new energy industry set sail overseas and move toward the world!

Zhang Chuanwei

Party Secretary and Chairman, Mingyang New Energy Investment Holding Group Co., Ltd.

Tides rise in the south of the sea, and the wind comes from the East.

As a participant and driver in the new energy industry, Mingyang understands the importance of the strategic opportunity window. The decisive choice made five years ago led Mingyang to fully implement the “two seas” strategy—“Sea-based + Overseas”—in the heat of Hainan. Choosing Hainan is choosing opportunity; investing in Hainan is investing in the future.

“Customs clearance at closure” operations are not the endpoint, but a new starting point for institutional-level opening up. Hainan Free Trade Port’s unique advantages of “Three Degrees and One Color” are highly aligned with Mingyang’s genes of “strengthening ambition toward the sea.” We used 50 days to simultaneously start three major projects: the high-end equipment manufacturing in Dongfang City, the wind turbine demonstration testing center in Lingao County, and the Sanya International Deep Far-Sea Research Institute, witnessing the rapid release of development vitality in Hainan’s Free Trade Port.

From Dongfang’s floating offshore wind power mother port to a globalized super-lighthouse factory, and then to Sanya’s international operations headquarters and Wenchang’s Dehua chip commercial aerospace super factory—Mingyang is recreating “another new Mingyang” in Hainan. This is not only the relocation of an industrial ecosystem and innovation, but also a strategic leap based on the Free Trade Port’s ability to link the world and push toward world-class enterprises.

The timing is right to build and establish the World Chamber of Merchant Mariners. We look forward to turning with global merchant mariner colleagues into a single rope—so that Hainan not only becomes a “bridgehead” for high-end equipment manufacturing, but also becomes an “important source of ideas and talent” for world clean energy technology and the marine economy. Merchant mariners are assembling; Mingyang is already fully equipped. Let us set out together for the starry sea of Hainan’s Free Trade Port!

Zhou Jinzhi

General Manager, Danzhou Jiaya Agricultural Development Co., Ltd.

Party Branch Secretary and Executive Vice Chairman, Youth Entrepreneurs Chamber of Commerce of Hainan Provincial Federation of Industry and Commerce

Full-island “customs clearance at closure” operations are an important milestone in the construction of Hainan’s Free Trade Port. Against this backdrop, the preparation for the World Chamber of Merchant Mariners is of positive significance. By building a communication platform for merchant mariners worldwide, it will further promote the integration of resources and coordinated cooperation, creating better conditions for sharing development opportunities of the Free Trade Port.

In the Free Trade Port, the development of real industries especially requires a global perspective. As a “new merchant mariner” rooted in Hainan and committed to tropical efficient agriculture, we look forward to leveraging this platform to introduce advanced international technologies and concepts, promote the expansion of local featured agriculture–culture–tourism brands into overseas markets, and achieve upgrades in industrial quality through open cooperation.

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