The Hainan Free Trade Port has now entered a critical phase of intensive development. Creating a high ground for world class innovation and a paradise for high-end talent is the core strategy. With this in mind, the Foreign Affairs Office of the Hainan Province Department of Science and Technology took the lead in offering an English version of the Hainan Provincial Foreign Experts Project Application Form in May, which will be used province-wide. This move is not only a key measure for Hainan in expanding services and more efficiently bringing in international talent, but also serves as a pragmatic method of optimizing the business environment, opening the doors of the province to welcome talent from around the world, and providing a strong boost to the high-quality development of the FTP.

The Hainan Provincial Foreign Expert Project Application Guide establishes a distinctive talent attraction system with clearly defined categories focused on the FTP development blueprint. The Guide aims to attract and serve a wide variety of foreign experts able to make practical contributions to Hainan’s development. There are two main categories meeting Hainan’s short and long-term development needs.

Hainan Provincial Foreign Expert Project (Category H): This project category focuses on Hainan’s innovation-driven development strategy and the development needs of key industries in the free trade port. Foreign experts, scholars, and a wide variety of talented professionals able to play a significant role in scientific research, technological innovation, product development, discipline development, and result achievement are welcomed under this category. The Hainan Province Department of Science and Technology provides support for foreign experts working in the province’s key development positioning fields such as Nanfan seed breeding, the deep sea and aerospace industries, the digital economy, green and low-carbon development, life and health services, ecological protection, and tropical high-efficiency agriculture.

Hainan Provincial Foreign Expert Project (Category Y): This project category focuses on retaining young talented individuals able to achieve scientific and technological breakthroughs in Hainan, providing support for talented, vibrant young people from around the world with outstanding research potential to come to Hainan to carry out scientific research, including a variety of cooperative scientific and postdoctoral research projects. Young international scholars (mainly those under the age of 45 within six years of obtaining doctoral degrees) are encouraged to carry out long term, stable academic research and exchanges in Hainan by participating in or hosting scientific research projects, injecting new life into the province’s scientific and technological innovation ecosystem.

The Guide clearly lays out Hainan’s focus on supporting foreign experts as they play an active role in science and technological research and the innovative development of key industry hubs such as Nanfan seed breeding, deep-sea technology, the commercial aerospace industry, the digital economy, and green, low-carbon development. At the same time, in the areas of life and health services, ecological protection, modern fisheries, clean energy, tropical high-efficiency agriculture, and other high-tech fields, Hainan is eager to welcome foreign experts who will make full use of their professional abilities and innovative strengths to bring advanced international concepts and technologies to the province.