From 20-23 February, a delegation from south China’s Hainan Province conducted economic and cultural exchanges in Vietnam primarily aimed at promoting the policies of the Hainan Free Trade Port (FTP) and boosting multilateral cooperation in transportation, tourism, education, tropical agriculture, and other key industries.

At the Hainan FTP promotion conference held in Ho Chi Minh City on February 21, 35 Chinese and Vietnamese enterprises signed off on 19 cooperation projects. The projects covered the purchase of goods, including coffee beans, coconut milk, dried fruits and vegetables, metals, automobiles, rubber, and steel, as well as bilateral tourism and factory investments. The total value of import and export and foreign investment projects reached RMB 3.4 billion (USD 493 million).

On 21 February, a Hainan Free Trade Port Promotion Conference was held in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. “The Hainan FTP currently has the highest level of openness in the world, and it is a new highland for China’s opening up to the outside world. This conference will promote the Sino-Vietnamese economic and trade cooperation and drive stronger and more stable development to benefit our nations’ peoples,” said Wei Huaxiang, Consul General of China in Ho Chi Minh City.

Hainan Rubber signed a RMB 1 billion (USD 145 million) rubber purchasing deal with a Vietnamese firm. “The signing of this agreement represents a significant boost to Hainan and Vietnam’s cooperation in the rubber industry and is mutually beneficial to both parties,” said a representative of Hainan Rubber, who explained that in recent years, Vietnam’s natural rubber industry has seen rapid development, with a variety of product categories.

Vietnam is the world’s second-largest coffee exporter. Hainan State Farms Tropical Products Industry Group Co., Ltd. signed an agreement with coffee tech firm ProfilePrint to jointly build a standardized international coffee supply chain system covering coffee bean import, sorting, testing, grading, warehousing, and logistics.

Haima, a Hainan-based automotive manufacturing company, signed a memorandum of strategic cooperation with the Vietnamese car trading platform CarVivu. The memorandum includes a sales order for 10,000 units valued at approximately RMB 1 billion (USD 145 million) over the next three years, and an expression of intention to carry out joint knocked-down assembly of Haima-produced new energy vehicles in Vietnam.

Hainan United Airlines signed an agreement with Vietnam Bamboo Airways to jointly promote the opening of direct flights between Hainan and Vietnam, adding transportation to the list of cooperation areas between the two places. “In the future, Hainan United Airlines will open more direct flights between Hainan and ASEAN countries to boost cooperation,” said Ding Jiabin, chairman of Hainan United Airlines.

Hainan and Vietnam, which face each other across the Beibu Gulf, are closely-linked neighbors and have a long history of cooperation. In 2022, the import and export volume of goods trade between Hainan and Vietnam increased by 60% compared with 2021.