On August 24, Feng Fei, Secretary of the CPC Hainan Provincial Committee and Chairman of the Standing Committee of the Hainan Provincial People’s Congress, and Liu Xiaoming, Governor of Hainan Province, met in Haikou with participants in the 2026 Seminar for Parliamentarians of ASEAN Countries, hosted by the National People’s Congress of China.

On behalf of the CPC Hainan Provincial Committee, the Standing Committee of the Hainan Provincial People’s Congress and the Hainan Provincial People’s Government, Feng Fei and Liu Xiaoming welcomed the delegation and briefed them on the progress of the Hainan Free Trade Port (FTP).

Feng said that the development of the Hainan Free Trade Port is a major national strategy personally planned, deployed and promoted by President Xi Jinping. On December 18, 2025, the Hainan Free Trade Port successfully launched island-wide special customs operations, marking a landmark step by China in firmly advancing high-standard opening up and promoting the development of an open world economy.

Since the launch of island-wide special customs operations, the Hainan Free Trade Port has continued to see stronger policy support, greater vitality in opening up, an increasingly optimized industrial system and a more favorable business environment. The Hainan Free Trade Port is becoming a new frontier of China’s opening up, a promising hub for mutually beneficial regional cooperation, and a new engine driving economic globalization.

Feng expressed the hope that, taking the seminar as an opportunity and a bond, Hainan will further strengthen friendly exchanges with ASEAN countries and deepen cooperation in exchanges between legislative bodies, tropical agriculture, green energy, digital trade, and people-to-people exchanges, contributing greater local strength to the development of the China-ASEAN Comprehensive Strategic Partnership.

Parliamentarians from Brunei, Cambodia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Timor-Leste, as well as the head of the Secretariat of the ASEAN Inter-Parliamentary Assembly, said that they would take the visit and exchanges as an opportunity to strengthen communication, coordination and experience-sharing among legislative bodies, give full play to their role as a bridge and link, and promote in-depth and multi-faceted mutually beneficial cooperation between their respective countries and the Hainan FTP in trade and investment, tropical agriculture, cultural tourism, food processing and renewable energy, working together to achieve win-win development.

From August 24 to 26, participants in the 2026 Seminar for Parliamentarians of ASEAN Countries will visit Hainan, with field trips to Haikou, Qionghai and Wenchang to learn from each other, build consensus and strengthen friendship.

Yu Chunsheng, Vice Chairman of the Financial and Economic Affairs Committee of the National People’s Congress, and Yan Xijun, Vice Chairman of the Standing Committee of the Hainan Provincial People’s Congress, also attended the meeting.