South China's Hainan Province is in full sail to establish a free trade port (FTP) by the end of 2025, which will adopt the world's most advanced economic and trade rules, amid the nation's unswerving efforts to promote a high-standard opening-up to the world, officials said on Wednesday.

Since China announced plans in April 2018 to build a pilot free trade zone covering the whole island, Hainan has been firmly heading toward the goal and has made great progress, Liu Xiaoming, acting governor of Hainan, said at a press conference.

More than 180 related policies have come into effect and China passed a law on the Hainan FTP in June 2021, making institutional arrangements for the construction of the FTP at the national level, according to Liu.

Hainan has made and implemented "three lists" for the preparation work - a task list, a project list and a stress test list, aiming to realize independent island-wide customs clearance operations by the end of 2025. It also plans to build 31 necessary infrastructure facilities by the end of 2023, Liu said. 

The province aims to set up the world's largest FTP and adopt the world's most high-standard economic and trade rules. 

Hainan will make full use of the advantages of the policy overlay of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership and FTP, and actively integrate into the global network of high-standard free trade zones such as the Comprehensive Progressive Trans-Pacific Partnership and the Digital Economy Partnership Agreement, according to Liu.

After the FTP is established, Hainan is expected to become a paradise for merchants, investors and tourists from all over the world. 

Hainan's FTP policy has attracted an increasing number of foreign companies to set up regional headquarters in the island.

Chen Shun, an official at the Haikou Comprehensive Bonded Zone, told  on Wednesday that it signed an agreement on Monday with Estee Lauder during the third China International Consumer Products Expo to set up a Chinese tourism and consumer product headquarters in the island. Last year, luxury group LVMH set up a Chinese tourism and consumer product headquarters in Hainan.

During the past five years, Hainan's actual use of foreign investment grew by an annual average of 63 percent, and the total investment in the period exceeded that of the prior three decades, Liu said.

The province's GDP came in at 681.8 billion yuan ($99 billion) in 2022, recording an average annual growth of 5.3 percent over the previous five years.