China’s Hainan sets 10-pct target for GDP growth

China’s southernmost province of Hainan is targeting economic growth of more than 10 percent this year, Governor Feng Fei said Sunday.

The province that is building a free trade port recorded a 3.5-percent gross domestic product (GDP) growth in 2020, Feng said at the annual session of the provincial legislature.

Chinese authorities last year released a master plan for the Hainan Free Trade Port, aiming to build the whole of Hainan Island into a globally influential, high-level free trade port by the middle of the century.

According to a government report, Hainan will make good use of the offshore duty-free policy and strive to achieve duty-free sales of over 60 billion yuan (about 9.26 billion U.S. dollars) in 2021.

China’s national GDP increased 2.3 percent year on year last year, likely the only major economy to post growth in the pandemic-ravaged year.