On August 26, Liu Xiaoming, Governor of Hainan Province, met in Haikou with Mohamed Saeed, Minister of Economic Development, Transport and Trade of the Maldives, and his delegation.

Liu welcomed Mohamed Saeed and his delegation and briefed them on the progress of the Hainan Free Trade Port (FTP), as well as exchanges and cooperation between Hainan and the Maldives. He said that China and the Maldives are friends who trust and support each other, as well as partners committed to pursuing development and prosperity together. As island economies, Hainan and the Maldives enjoy complementary resource endowments, aligned development needs and broad prospects for cooperation.

Hainan has always upheld the principles of openness, inclusiveness, mutual benefit and win-win cooperation, and attaches great importance to friendly cooperation with the Maldives. Taking this meeting as an opportunity, Hainan is ready to further implement the important consensus reached by the heads-of-state of the two countries, deepen trade cooperation, further advance people-to-people and tourism exchanges, strengthen practical cooperation in agriculture and the blue economy, enhance cooperation between free trade ports/zones and sister cities, and explore cooperation in emerging fields such as the digital economy, green energy and the low-altitude economy. Together, the two sides will promote deeper and more substantive cooperation and deliver more fruitful outcomes.

Mohamed Saeed said that in recent years, the comprehensive strategic cooperative partnership between the Maldives and China has continued to deepen, with fruitful results achieved in practical cooperation across various fields. This has laid a solid foundation and created important opportunities for the Maldives and Hainan to further strengthen exchanges and cooperation. He expressed the hope that the visit would provide an opportunity to gain a deeper understanding of the policies, institutional framework and development of the Hainan Free Trade Port, and lead to more concrete and substantive outcomes in areas including trade, transportation, the low-altitude economy, cross-border e-commerce, eco-tourism and renewable energy.

Cai Qiang, Secretary-General of the Hainan Provincial People’s Government, also attended the meeting.